Singapore shares rise at Wednesday's open, tracking Wall Street gains; STI up 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks were pulled into positive territory on Wednesday (Apr 20), extending gains on Wall Street and the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) added 0.7 per cent or 22.88 points to 3,330.01 as at 9.05 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 120 to 33, after 148.8 million securities worth S$106.4 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine , which rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.129, with 36.3 million shares traded as at 9.06 am.

Other heavily traded securities included Jiutian Chemical , which gained 4.1 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.101, with 32 million shares traded, as well as Golden Agri-Resources , which advanced 1.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.335, with 10.5 million shares traded.

Singtel was up 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 at S$2.60, with 2.3 million shares traded. The telco said on Tuesday that it filed an appeal for a court case related to the acquisition financing of Singtel Optus in 2001.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.8 per cent or S$0.25 at S$33.25 as at 9.06am. UOB was up 1 per cent or S$0.30 at S$30.73, while OCBC rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.07 to S$11.97.

Other active index counters included Yangzijiang Shipbuilding , which lost 1.3 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.58, as well as ComfortDelGro , which added 1.3 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.53.

US stock indices reached a monthly high on Tuesday as investors took heart to positive earnings and doveish comments from 2 US Federal Reserve officials on interest rate rises. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.5 per cent to 34,911.2, the S&P 500 gained 1.6 per cent to 4,462.21, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2.2 per cent to 13,619.66.

Elsewhere in the region, Tokyo stocks started Wednesday higher. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.8 per cent to 27,189.47 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was gained 0.8 per cent at 1,911.39.

In contrast, European shares posted their worst day in 2 weeks on Tuesday as investors fret over rising bond yields, the war in Ukraine and upcoming earnings. The pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 0.8 per cent, led by declines in healthcare and consumer staples stocks.