Singapore shares rise at Tuesday's open; STI up 1.1%

SINGAPORE stocks were pulled into positive territory on Tuesday (Apr 19), led by gains from banks and other index counters.

The Straits Times Index rose 1.1 per cent or 34.67 points to reach 3,337.74 as at 9.07 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 100 to 36, after 65.5 million securities worth S$74.9 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine , which held steady at S$0.122, with 8.6 million shares traded as at 9.08 am.

Other heavily traded shares include Addvalue Technologies , which advanced 5.6 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.019, with 4.2 million shares traded. FJ Benjamin was also up 4.6 per cent or S$0.001 to reach S$0.023 after 3.8 million shares changed hands.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS climbed 1.6 per cent or S$0.54 to S$33.54, UOB gained 1.8 per cent or S$0.55 to S$30.83, while OCBC rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.10 to S$12.06.

Other active index counters included Singtel , which gained 1.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.61. Singapore Airlines was also up 1.9 per cent or S$0.10 to S$5.50.

On Monday, the national carrier posted a 64 per cent increase in passengers carried in March 2022 at 893,000, up from 544,600 the month before. In its March 2022 operating results, SIA also noted that its passenger capacity measured in available seat-kilometres reached 51 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels in March 2022.

In the US, Wall Street shares inched lower on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.1 per cent to finish at 34,411.69, the S&P 500 dropped less than 0.1 per cent to end at 4,391.71, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.1 per cent to 13,332.36.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 1 per cent to reach 27,078 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.9 per cent to 1,897.72.