Singapore shares rise at Wednesday's open; STI up 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Wednesday amid a mixed performance among overseas markets.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.4 per cent or 11.38 points to 3,129.89 as at 9.05am. Gainers outnumbered losers 87 to 55, after 44.7 million securities worth S$68.8 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Addvalue Technologies, which rose 11.1 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to one cent, with 4.5 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Jiutian Chemical, which was flat at 8.3 Singapore cents with 4.4 million shares traded, as well as Thai Beverage Public Company, which shed 0.7 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 68 cents, with 3.3 million shares traded.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was down 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$30.44, UOB was up 0.7 per cent or S$0.18 to S$26.19, while OCBC gained 0.7 per cent or S$0.08 to S$11.86.

Other active index counters included Singtel, which advanced 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.40, as well as the Singapore Exchange, which rose 1.4 per cent or S$0.15 to S$10.77.

In the US, stocks retreated on Tuesday following a lacklustre US retail sales report that exacerbated worries about the latest Covid-19 wave.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.8 per cent to 35,343.28. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.7 per cent to 4,448.08, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.9 per cent to 16,700.07.

In Europe, stocks eked out gains amid upbeat eurozone data. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.1 per cent higher, after the index marked its longest winning streak in over a decade.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened nearly flat on Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 index added 0.02 per cent to 27,428.84 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.03 per cent to 1,916.26.