Singapore stocks open higher on Thursday; STI up 0.5%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Thursday after a mixed close on Wall Street. The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.5 per cent or 14.36 points to 3,144.82 as at 9.02am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 108 to 36, with 76.8 million securities worth S$52.3 million changing hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine, with 19.7 million shares worth S$2.4 million traded as at 9.02am. Its shares were up 0.3 Singapore cent or 2.5 per cent to 12.3 cents.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was also heavily traded, with 6.5 million shares worth S$9.4 million changing hands. Its shares were up S$0.04 or 2.8 per cent at S$1.45. The shipbuilder on Wednesday said it recently won another US$871 million worth of new orders for 11 vessels, taking its total order wins for the year to date to 100 vessels, which marks a new record of US$5.59 billion for order wins based on total contract value, and of US$7.72 billion for its total outstanding order book.

Among index securities, Singtel was also actively traded in the morning, and was up S$0.01 or 0.4 per cent to S$2.30. The telco said earlier on Thursday it has applied for a digital bank licence in Malaysia through its joint venture with Grab, together with a consortium of other investors.

Banking stocks were higher in early trade. DBS rose S$0.25 or 0.8 per cent to S$30.06, OCBC was up S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent to S$12.03, while UOB gained S$0.14 or 0.5 per cent to S$25.96.

In the US, Wall Street stocks put in a strong performance in the first half of 2021, ending on a mostly upbeat note on Wednesday, while investors cheered as the global economy edges back to life with coronavirus vaccines becoming more widespread, even as new Covid-19 variants continue to pose risks.

The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.1 per cent to 4,297.50, making it its fifth straight record and lifting the gain for the second quarter to more than 8 per cent. The Nasdaq closed down 0.2 per cent at 14,503.95.

European shares ended lower on Wednesday as investors locked in gains after a five-month winning streak, with concerns over an eventual spike in inflation and the Delta variant of the coronavirus also pushing some money off the table.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.8 per cent lower at 452.84 points but rose 1.4 per cent in June, its fifth straight month of gains. The index is up 14.4 per cent this year.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 index opened lower on Thursday with investors focused on key US economic data due this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slid 0.1 per cent or 39.99 points to 28,751.54 at the open, while the broader Topix index was flat, inching up 0.01 per cent or 0.28 point to 1,943.85.