Singapore shares open higher on Friday; STI up 0.31%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Friday after US stocks closed at fresh record highs overnight. Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 9.94 points or 0.31 per cent to 3,261.94 as at 9.07am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 122 to 34, after 128.7 million securities worth S$92 million changed hands.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the most traded counter by volume in the morning, rising S$0.03 or 2.6 per cent to S$1.19 after 13.9 million shares were traded.

Startup incubator The Trendlines Group continued to see heavy trading after it lifted its trade halt on Thursday evening. It had requested a trade halt during Thursday's midday break, when it was up by 27.1 per cent, or 2.6 Singapore cents to 12.2 Singapore cents amid heavy trade volume.

Trendlines slipped S$0.003 or 2.5 per cent to S$0.119 after 7.9 million shares changed hands as at 9.06am on Friday.

Index stock Singtel traded down S$0.02 or 0.6 per cent to S$3.38 with 2.3 million shares traded.

All three local banks gained ground in early trade, as DBS rose S$0.10 or 0.4 per cent to S$26.21, OCBC advanced S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent to S$11.11, while UOB was up S$0.09 or 0.3 per cent to S$26.77.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.2 per cent to 28,868.80, the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent to 3,257.85 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.3 per cent to 9,092.19, its biggest single-session gain in nearly three months.

All three indices finished at all-time highs, the latest in a run of records as US-China trade tensions have eased and central banks have adopted accommodative monetary policy.

Markets in Europe were also positive as the pan-European stocks index Stoxx 600 jumped 0.9 per cent after declining for two straight sessions when caution crept in about how long a US-China trade truce would last.