Singapore stocks open higher on Friday even as US, Europe fall; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks opened slightly higher on Friday (Jul 1) morning, despite Wall Street’s worst H1 performance since 1970.

The Straits Times Index (STI) inched up 0.1 per cent or 4.14 points to 3,106.35 as at 9.01 am. Advancers outnumbered decliners 61 to 59 after 62.3 million securities worth S$34.7 million changed hands.

Raffles Education was the top traded counter by volume, remaining unchanged at S$0.063 with some 12.5 million shares traded in the morning.

Other heavily traded securities include QT Vascular , with an unchanged share price of S$0.004 with 11.5 million shares changing hands, as well as Sembcorp Marine , which saw 6.7 million shares traded as it held its unchanged S$0.108 share price.

Among index counters, Thai Beverage saw brisk trading with 4.1 million shares changing hands at the open. The counter declined 0.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.64.

The trio of local banks were mixed in early trade. As at 9.01 am, DBS slipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$29.66, UOB opened 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 higher at S$26.30 and OCBC gained 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$11.41.

In the US, Wall Street stocks ended the first half of 2022 with a lacklustre performance, closing solidly lower after US data showed persistently high inflation pinching consumer spending.

On Thursday, the broad-based S&P 500 finished at 3,785.38, down 0.9 per cent for the day and a loss of more than 16 per cent for the last 6 months, the worst first half of a year since 1970. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.8 per cent to 30,775.43, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 1.3 per cent to 11,028.74.

In Europe, stocks were also seeing lows, recording their worst quarter since the pandemic-led selling of early 2020 as hawkish central bank actions to tame inflation fanned fears of a global recession. 

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The continent-wide Stoxx 600 index dropped 1.5 per cent, chalking up quarterly losses of 10.7 per cent. All the major sectors were in the red. 

Elsewhere in Asia, however, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday despite the gloomy US performance as investors cheered a steady increase in Japan’s domestic economic activity, while global players eyed inflation and recession risks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.4 per cent, or 105.02 points, at 26,498.06 in early trade, while the broader Topix index added 0.4 per cent, or 8.07 points, at 1,878.89.