Singapore shares rise at Friday’s open tracking global gains; STI up 0.7%

SINGAPORE shares were pulled into positive territory on Friday (Sep 9), as global markets ended higher after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its biggest-ever interest rate hike.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.7 per cent or 22.11 points at 3,255.72 as at 9.02 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 76 to 33, or about 2 securities down for every 1 up, after 55.6 million securities worth S$69 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding , which climbed 3.9 per cent or S$0.035 to S$0.935, with 11.2 million shares changing hands. The group on Thursday announced that it obtained the GTT licence for the construction of vessels using GTT Mark III membrane technologies. It also signed an agreement with France’s GTT, a move which enables Yangzijiang to build large LNG vessels.

Other heavily traded securities included Mapletree Logistics Trust , which rose 2.9 per cent or S$0.05 to S$1.76, with 2.8 million shares traded, as well as mm2 Asia , which was up 2 per cent or S$0.001 at S$0.05, with 2.4 million shares traded.

Banking stocks saw some gains during early morning trade. DBS was trading 0.5 per cent or S$0.17 higher at S$33.16, UOB was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.10 at S$27.17, while OCBC advanced 0.7 per cent or S$0.08 to S$12.10.

Other active index counters included Singtel , which was up 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 at S$2.73, and CapitaLand Investment , which was trading 1.9 per cent or S$0.07 higher at S$3.68.

The ECB on Thursday raised its benchmark lending rate by 75 basis points and promised further hikes in a bid to bring inflation back towards its 2 per cent medium-term target.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed a choppy session 0.5 per cent higher, with banks rising 2.3 per cent after the ECB abandoned the 2-tier system for the remuneration of excess reserves.

Meanwhile, Wall Street closed Thursday’s trading session with modest gains following early losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent to finish at 31,774.52. The broad-based S&P 500 increased 0.7 per cent to end at 4,006.18, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index closed 0.6 per cent higher at 11,862.13.

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Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks also opened higher on Friday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.5 per cent to 28,203.82 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.1 per cent to 1,959.14.