Singapore stocks climb at Thursday's open; STI up 0.9%

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Thursday (Mar 3) morning after US stocks performed well overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) climbed up 0.9 per cent or 28.22 points to 3,272.62 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 118 to 26 after 72.2 million securities worth S$64.7 million changed hands.

Oil companies Golden Agri-Resources, Rex International and Oiltek were among the most actively traded counters by volume on Thursday morning.

Shares of Golden Agri-Resources E5H were up 3.3 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.315. The palm oil company on Tuesday posted a 71.2 per cent growth in net profit year on year to US$323 million for H2 FY2021.

Oil exploration and production company Rex International 5WH traded at S$0.44, up 2.3 per cent or S$0.01. This comes amid rising crude oil prices over fears about supply disruptions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Oiltek HQU , an integrated process technology and renewable energy solutions provider in the vegetable oils industry, made its market debut on Thursday, unchanged at S$0.27.

The trio of local banks all rose on Thursday morning.

DBS D05 shares grew 1.3 per cent or S$0.42 to S$33.75, OCBC O39 rose 1.5 per cent or S$0.17 to S$11.73 and UOB U11 gained 1 per cent or S$0.30 to S$30.15.

Over on Wall Street, US stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signalled a patient approach to hiking interest rates.

Despite ongoing worries about the impact of the war in Ukraine, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 33,891.35, up 1.8 per cent. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.9 per cent to 4,386.54, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.6 per cent to 13,752.02.

Meanwhile, European stocks also closed higher on Wednesday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended the day 0.9 per cent higher.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1 per cent or 271.20 points at 26,664.23 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 1.3 per cent or 24.02 points to 1,883.96.