Singapore stocks open higher on Monday; STI up 0.5%
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SINGAPORE shares started the week higher on Monday (Mar 21) after Wall Street posted strong gains on Friday, as talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping over the Ukraine crisis ended without big surprises.
The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.5 per cent or 16.75 points to 3,347.38 as at 9.01 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 99 to 26 after 104.2 million securities worth S$68.8 million changed hands.
Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (MNACT) and Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) were among the most actively traded counters by volume, with 11.2 million units of MNACT and 2.2 million units of MCT transacted.
MNACT units gained 4.5 per cent or S$0.05 to trade at S$1.17, while index counter MCT rose 3.2 per cent or S$0.06 to reach S$1.95.
Prior to the market open, their managers had announced they were now offering MNACT unitholders the option to receive the entire scheme consideration of their proposed merger, of S$1.1949 per unit, wholly in cash. MCT will also make a preferential offering of S$2.0039 per unit to fund the additional cash of up to S$2.2 billion required in the new cash-only option.
Shares of Sembcorp Marine also saw brisk trading at the open, edging up S$0.002 or 2.2 per cent to S$0.093 with 8.3 million securities changing hands.
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The local banks were a sea of green in early trade. DBS added S$0.23 or 0.7 per cent to S$34.99, UOB rose S$0.12 or 0.4 per cent to S$32.19, and OCBC gained S$0.10 or 0.8 per cent to trade at S$12.13.
Over on Wall Street, all 3 major indices closed higher on Friday with the biggest boost from recently-battered technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 274.17 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 34,754.93, the S&P 500 gained 51.45 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 4,463.12 and the Nasdaq Composite added 279.06 points, or 2.1 per cent, to 13,893.84.
European shares also rose on Friday to add to strong gains earlier in the week.
The Stoxx 600 index closed 0.9 per cent higher to post its best week since November 2020, on optimism that peace would be negotiated in the Ukraine conflict that has rattled global markets.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Japan were closed on Monday in observance of a public holiday.
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