Singapore shares rise at Wednesday’s open; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks rose slightly in early trade on Wednesday (May 4) tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) headed up 0.1 per cent or 2.33 points to 3,359.23 as at 9.02 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 80 to 69, after 111.3 million securities worth S$154.9 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Golden Agri-Resources , which rose 1.5 per cent, or S$0.005 to S$0.33, with 10.2 million shares changing hands.

Thai Beverage Public Company fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.68, with 10.1 million shares traded, while Jiutian Chemical rose 2.2 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.094 with 5.8 million shares traded.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was trading 1 per cent or S$0.33 higher at S$34.25, UOB rose 0.9 per cent or S$0.26 to S$30.25, while OCBC remained unchanged at S$12.39.

Other active index counters included Singapore Telecommunications which fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.75, and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust , which fell 0.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.31.

In the US, Wall Street stocks finished a choppy session modestly higher on Tuesday as markets await another interest rate hike in the Federal Reserve’s latest bid to counter inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Tuesday up 0.2 per cent at 33,128.79. The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.5 per cent to 4,175.48, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2 per cent to 12,563.76.

Meanwhile in Europe, stocks rose on Tuesday after a string of upbeat earnings, while banking shares gained as government bond yields hit fresh highs in anticipation of quicker interest rate hikes by global central banks to tackle surging inflation.

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The pan- European Stoxx 600 index climbed 0.5 per cent, rebounding from a “flash crash” in the previous session caused by a single sell order trade by Citigroup Inc.

Regionally, financial markets in Tokyo are closed for a public holiday.