Singapore shares rise at Friday’s open; STI up 0.9%

SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger on Friday (May 20) even as Wall Street stocks fell overnight amid concerns of a slowing economy. 

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) headed up 0.9 per cent or 28.06 points to 3,218.77 as at 9.01 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 98 to 22, after 76.7 million securities worth S$84.2 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume as at 9.02 am was Jiutian Chemical , which rose 1.9 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.109 with 15.2 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Golden Agri-Resources , which rose 5.5 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.29 with 12.1 million shares traded, as well as Sembcorp Marine , which rose 3.1 per cent or S$0.003 to S$0.099 with 8.2 million shares traded.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was up 0.9 per cent or S$0.27 at S$31.16, UOB gained 2.2 per cent or S$0.63 to S$29.14, while OCBC rose 1 per cent or S$0.11 to S$11.74.

Other active index counters included Singapore Telecommunications , which was trading up 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 at S$2.70 and Mapletree Logistics Trust , which gained 0.6 per cent or S$0.01 at S$1.62.

In the United States, Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday, seeing its worst trading day this year as efforts to rebound from the prior session’s rout floundered amid worries over slowing growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.8 per cent at 31,253.13. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.6 per cent to 3,900.79, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 per cent to 11,388.50.

Meanwhile, European stocks shares slumped 1.5 per cent on Thursday, stretching declines to the second straight session, as dismal results from big US retailers underlined the hit from surging inflation on the world’s biggest economy. 

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Tracking US peers, European retailers fell nearly 2 per cent and were the biggest drags on the pan-European Stoxx 600 index, which extended declines after a 1 per cent slide on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s stocks opened higher on Friday despite falls on Wall Street as bargain-hunting purchases offset some risk-off sentiment among investors. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.1 per cent or 36.47 points at 26,439.31 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.03 per cent or 0.49 point at 1,860.57.