Singapore shares rise on Monday’s open; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks started Tuesday (Sept 13) on a positive note as investors extended the optimism seen in the US and European markets.

As at 9.02 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) gained 0.2 per cent or 5.58 points to 3,280.30. Gainers outnumbered losers 69 to 39 after 34.2 million securities worth S$36.1 million changed hands.

Frasers Hospitality Trust was the most actively counter traded by volume during early trade. Units of the trust shed close to 20 per cent or S$0.14 to S$0.565 as 4 million shares were traded. This comes after a Monday night announcement that its privatisation offer had failed to garner enough support for the offer to go through.

The manager had only managed to obtain 74.88 per cent approval from unitholders, just a few points shy of the 75 per cent mandatory requirement.

Yangzijiang Financial Holdings were also amongst the most actively traded counters at the opening bell, opening flat at S$0.40 with 3.5 million shares traded.

Index counter Genting Singapore began Monday as one of the top traded counters on the STI as it traded unchanged at S$0.775 with 748,900 shares changing hands.

Meanwhile, the trio of local banks continued its positive opening streak. DBS gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.11 to S$33.60, OCBC rose 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$12.20 while UOB inched up 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$27.45 as at 9.01am.

In the US, stocks continued their rally from last week to finish Monday solidly higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7 per cent to finish the day at 32,381.34, the fourth straight gain.

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The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1.1 per cent to 4,110.41, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.3 per cent to 12,266.41.

European shares hit a two-week high on Monday on hopes of some easing in energy prices and banks rallied to near four-week highs on bets of more jumbo-sized interest rate hikes in Europe.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 1.8 per cent, following its first weekly gain in a month on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday following gains on Wall Street, as investors priced in the expectation of further interest rate hikes to tame inflation.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.14 per cent, or 40.60 points, at 28,582.71 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.15 per cent, or 2.96 points, at 1,983.18.