Singapore stocks open higher for sixth straight session; STI up 0.8%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Tuesday for the sixth day running after Wall Street hit fresh records on Monday on hopes for additional stimulus.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.8 per cent or 22.55 points at 2,953.95 as at 9.03am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 130 to 29, after 139.6 million securities worth S$102.1 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which rose 4.6 per cent or 4.5 Singapore cents to S$1.02, with 21.8 million shares changing hands. On Monday, the shipbuilder said it bagged agreements to build and deliver 29 vessels with a total contract value of US$1.3 billion.

Other heavily traded securities include Thomson Medical, which was up 6.1 per cent or 0.3 Singapore cent to 5.2 cents, with 12.3 million shares traded, and The Place Holdings, which gained 4.9 per cent or 0.8 Singapore cent to 17.2 cents, with 10.8 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks rose in early trade. DBS was 1 per cent or S$0.25 higher at S$26.40, UOB advanced 0.7 per cent or S$0.17 to S$24.02, while OCBC rose 0.7 per cent or S$0.07 to S$10.51.

Other active index counters include Singtel, which climbed 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.36, and Singapore Airlines, which rose 2.1 per cent or S$0.09 to S$4.42.

All three major indices in the US ended at all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8 per cent to finish the session at 31,385.76, the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.7 per cent to close at 3,915.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1 per cent to 13,987.64.

In Europe, shares rose on Monday, led by economically sensitive cyclical sectors, as sentiment was lifted by hopes of a quicker recovery and multibillion-dollar deals in the region. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.3 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.2 per cent to 29,439.22 in early trade, while the broader Topix Index edged up 0.1 per cent to 1,926.68.