Singapore stocks open higher on Monday; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks started the week on a positive note, in line with regional trends, and tracking gains on Wall Street from last Friday where major indices surged to fresh records.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.2 per cent or 4.14 points to 2,844.03 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 84 to 58, after 78 million securities worth S$75.3 million changed hands.

Shares of Singtel were the most actively traded by value on Monday's open, surging up 9.8 per cent or S$0.23 as at 9.01am, with more than 10 million shares worth S$25.6 million changing hands. It comes after an announcement last Friday, that the telco's alliance with Grab bagged one of two Singapore digital full-bank licences.

iFast Corporation shares were among the biggest decliners in the morning, falling 28.5 per cent or S$1.11 to S$2.79 as at 9.02am. The mainboard-listed wealth management platform was unsuccessful in its bid for a digital wholesale bank licence in Singapore. Nonetheless, iFast on Saturday said it still plans to continue pursuing a digital banking licence both in Singapore and abroad.

The trio of local banks were trading lower on Monday morning, with DBS slipping 0.7 per cent or S$0.19 to S$25.47, OCBC losing 0.7 per cent or S$0.07 to S$10.03, and UOB trading down 0.4 per cent or S$0.10 at S$22.95.

The Business Times reported on Monday that Singapore banks may move to review or even cut their exposure to Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) customers, as a recent wave of high-profile SOE bond defaults become a wake-up call for lenders counting on government bailouts.

Other actives in the morning include Japfa, which gained 5.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$0.81 as at 9.01am, with 2.7 million shares changing hands. The agri-food company announced on Monday that it will sell 80 per cent of its South-east Asia branded dairy business to affiliates of investment firms TPG and Northstar Group for US$236 million in a strategic partnership.

Wall Street stocks surged to fresh records last Friday, extending a post-election rally as disappointing US jobs data boosted the prospects for fiscal stimulus.

All three major indices finished the week at all-time highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.8 per cent to 30,218.26. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.9 per cent to close at 3,699.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.7 per cent to 12,464.23.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened higher on Monday, lifted by recent global rallies on sustained hopes for fresh US stimulus and coronavirus vaccines.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.26 per cent or 70.05 points to 26,821.29 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.27 per cent or 4.75 points at 1,780.69.

In Australia, the ASX 200 was trading higher on Monday, gaining 0.7 per cent to 6,681.5 in morning trade.