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

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Monday (Feb 7), following Wall Street gains.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.2 per cent or 7.83 points to 3,339.24 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 91 to 35, after 75.4 million securities worth S$84.5 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine S51 , which inched up S$0.002 or 2.4 per cent to S$0.087 with 19.3 million shares changing hands as at 9.02 am.

Jiutian Chemical Group C8R was also actively traded at the open, rising S$0.002 or 2.3 per cent to S$0.089 after 4.5 million shares changed hands. This comes after the Catalist-listed chemical group issued a profit guidance for FY2021, as it expects to report a "significant increase" in consolidated net profit after tax for the full year ended Dec 31, 2021 due to higher average selling price and sales volume of their main products.

Index counter CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust C38U was among the most actively traded securities, with 2.2 million units traded. The counter was trading at S$2.06, down S$0.01 or 0.5 per cent.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS D05 was trading 0.3 per cent or S$0.10 higher at S$36.05, while OCBC O39 climbed 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$12.84 as at 9.02 am. UOB U11 was down 0.4 per cent or S$0.11 to S$31.19, following an hours-long disruption to the bank's mobile app on Friday, which it said was not due to cyberattacks or security breaches.

Over on Wall Street, US stocks finished mostly higher on Friday after strong January jobs data was released, raising expectations for aggressive tightening in monetary policy.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent to 4,500.53, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.6 per cent to 14,098.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.1 per cent at 35,089.74.

Meanwhile, European stocks fell on Friday, with automobile stocks hitting a one-month low on the prospect of tougher emissions tests, while a hawkish shift from the European Central Bank continued to rattle markets.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 1.4 per cent lower at 462.15, extending losses after a near 2 per cent drop in the previous session.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Monday as worries mounted over a tightening of US monetary policy.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.57 per cent or 155.94 points to 27.284.05 in early trade and the broader Topix index was down 0.36 per cent, or 6.96 points, to 1,923.60.