Singapore stocks open higher after Wall Street gains; STI up 0.6%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street, which was boosted by a strong showing from technology giants.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.6 per cent or 15.23 points to 2,631.53 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 108 to 26, after 66.3 million securities worth S$83.5 million changed hands.

Pharmaceutical stocks were among the most actively traded, with Hyphens Pharma falling 4 per cent or 2.5 Singapore cents to 60 cents, with 8.1 million shares changing hands. Meanwhile, iX Biopharma rose 5 per cent or 1.5 Singapore cents to 32 cents, with seven million shares traded.

Medtecs International held steady at 73.5 Singapore cents, with 2.7 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities include Singtel, which rose 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.54 on a cum-dividend basis, with three million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks rose in early trade. DBS was up 1.4 per cent or S$0.29 at S$21.58, UOB advanced 0.4 per cent or S$0.09 to S$20.64, while OCBC rose 1 per cent or S$0.09 to S$9.27

Other active index counters include Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, which rose 1.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$3.37, and Mapletree Logistics Trust, which held steady at S$2.04.

Mapletree Logistics Trust's manager on Monday declared a distribution per unit of 2.045 Singapore cents for its first quarter ended June 30, 2020, up 1 per cent from 2.025 cents for the year-ago period.

In the US, the Nasdaq powered to another record Monday after strong gains by Amazon, Microsoft and other tech giants ahead of earnings reports in the coming days. The index surged 2.5 per cent to 10,767.09.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended less than 0.1 per cent higher at 26,680.87, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent to 3,251.84.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.4 per cent to 22,815.60 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.2 per cent to 1,579.99.