Singapore shares rise at Friday’s open tracking gains in US, Europe; STI up 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares were pulled into positive territory on Friday (Jul 22) after the US and Europe markets closed higher on Thursday, amid rosy corporate results and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) surprise half-point interest rate hike.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index rose 0.5 per cent or 16.46 points to 3,168.76 as at 9.02 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 64 to 33, or about 2 securities up for every 1 down, after 60 million securities worth S$45.8 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Genting Singapore , which rose 2.6 per cent or S$0.02 to S$0.795 with 7.1 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Sembcorp Marine , which was flat at S$0.104 with 5.5 million shares traded, as well as Thai Beverage Public Company, which remained unchanged at S$0.63 with 2.7 million shares traded.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS advanced 1 per cent or S$0.29 to S$30.96, UOB climbed 0.9 per cent or S$0.24 to S$27.34, while OCBC increased 0.5 per cent or S$0.06 to S$11.44.

Other active index counters included Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust which rose 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.90, and CapitaLand Investment which gained 1.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$3.86.

In the US, stocks finished higher for the third straight session on Thursday after Tesla posted better-than-expected profits. The US dollar also retreated.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index led gains, ending the session 1.4 per cent higher at 12,059.61. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 per cent to close at 32,036.90, while the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1 per cent to 3,999.00.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 share index was also bolstered by upbeat company earnings on Thursday, although gains were limited as investors digested the ECB’s bigger-than-expected interest rate hike.

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Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower amid market uncertainty. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.3 per cent to 27,718.70 in early trade, while the broader Topix index fell 0.3 per cent to 1,945.55.