Singapore stocks little changed at Monday's open; STI down 0.01%

SINGAPORE shares opened little changed on Monday (Apr 4), with the Straits Times Index (STI) losing 0.01 per cent or 0.44 point to 3,418.67 as at 9.03 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 86 to 42, after 57.9 million securities worth S$68.8 million changed hands.

The most actively traded counter by volume was Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which saw 7.6 million of its shares worth S$17.9 million traded at 9.03 am. Its shares were flat at S$2.35.

SPH said on Friday that Cuscaden Peak's bid to acquire the company via a scheme of arrangement was sanctioned in court, and that its last day of trading will be Apr 7.

Sembcorp Marine was also actively traded, with 4.2 million shares worth S$400,000 changing hands. The counter was up S$0.001 or 1 per cent at S$0.097.

Among index stocks, Venture Corp saw brisk trading, with 308,400 shares worth S$5.4 million changing hands. Its shares were down S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent at S$17.60.

The trio of local banks were mixed in early trade. DBS was flat at S$35.55, UOB fell S$0.14 or 0.4 per cent to S$31.82, while OCBC was down S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$12.38.

In the US, equities closed the first session of the second quarter higher on Friday after data showed American businesses adding workers in March, though the manufacturing sector is struggling amid high inflation.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.4 per cent higher at 34,818.27, the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent to finish at 4,545.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index won 0.3 per cent to close at 14,261.50.

Meanwhile, European shares rose on Friday as a rally in commodity-linked and bank stocks helped outweigh worries about economic growth and inflation, with Europe remaining on alert for a disruption to gas imports from Russia.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index on Friday rose 0.5 per cent higher.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index opened higher on Monday, tracking gains on Wall Street, but early trade was volatile as investors eyed developments in Ukraine and Covid-19 lockdowns in China.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.3 per cent or 78.49 points to 27,744.47 in early trade, while the broader Topix index added 0.3 per cent or 5.18 points to 1,949.45.