Singapore shares rise at Tuesday's open tracking Wall Street rally; STI up 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger on Tuesday following overnight rallies on Wall Street and Europe. Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) advanced 0.7 per cent or 17.05 points to 2,567.91 as at 9.03am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 114 to 38, after 196.4 million shares worth S$130.6 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was ComfortDelGro, which rose 2.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.46 on an ex-dividend basis, with six million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Mapletree Logistics Trust, which was up 1.5 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.04 with 3.2 million shares traded, as well as Singtel, which held steady at S$2.52 on a cum-dividend basis with three million shares traded.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 1 per cent or S$0.19 at S$19.85, UOB was up 0.6 per cent or S$0.11 to S$19.89 on a cum-dividend basis, while OCBC rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.05 to S$8.70.

Other active index counters included Keppel Corp which was up 1.2 per cent or S$0.07 to S$6.03 on a cum-dividend basis and Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, which advanced 2.9 per cent or S$0.09 to S$3.25.

Wall Street stocks finished higher on Monday, shrugging off unrest in many cities following anti-racism protests and worsening US-China tensions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 per cent to 25,475.02, S&P 500 climbed 0.4 per cent to 3,055.73, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.7 per cent to 9,552.05.

In Europe, shares rose on Monday, as signs of recovery for the continent's manufacturers prompted investors to continue snapping up cyclical stocks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 1.1 per cent higher, even as trading activity was dulled by market holidays for Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday tracking rallies on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.4 per cent to 22,143.44 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.4 per cent to 1,575.13.