Singapore shares rise at Friday's open; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks continued to rally on Friday (Mar 25) as investors took heart from the relaxation of the Republic's Covid-19 measures, including domestic and border restrictions.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.2 per cent or 6.85 points to 3,406.55 as at 9.04 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 102 to 45, or about 2 securities up for every 1 down, after 82.6 million securities worth S$83.6 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Tritech Group 5G9, which rose 72.2 per cent or S$0.013 to S$0.031, with 22.6 million shares changing hands. The water and environment company announced a S$33.8 million share placement to several new strategic investors - whom it will jointly collaborate on projects involving several of its businesses.

Other heavily traded securities on the Singapore bourse included Hatten Land PH0, which gained 5.1 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.041, with 3.2 million shares traded, as well as Yangzijiang Shipbuilding BS6 , which stayed flat at S$1.45, with 2.7 million shares traded.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS D05 was down 0.2 per cent or S$0.07 at S$35.57, UOB U11 rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$32.08, while OCBC O39 advanced 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$12.32.

Aviation and tourism-related counters rallied after clocking gains on Thursday following the new Covid-19 relaxation measures announcement. Singapore Airlines C6L rose 1.5 per cent or S$0.08 to S$5.48, SATS S58 was up 1.4 per cent or S$0.06 at S$4.23, while SIA Engineering S59 climbed 2.6 per cent or S$0.06 to S$2.39.

Genting Singapore G13 gained 1.2 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.835, while beneficiaries of medical tourism like Raffles Medical BSL and IHH Healthcare Q0F rose 0.9 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

Major US stock indexes rallied more than 1 per cent on Thursday, amid declining oil prices and investors snapping up beaten-down shares of chipmakers and big growth names.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1 per cent to 34,707.94, the S&P 500 advanced 1.4 per cent to 4,520.16, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.9 per cent to 14,191.84.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.6 per cent to reach 28,285.04 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.5 per cent to 1,991.09.