Singapore stocks open little changed on Friday; STI down 0.02%

SINGAPORE shares opened little changed on Friday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 0.02 per cent or 0.52 point at 3,088.32 as at 9.06am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 91 to 51, with 210.8 million securities worth S$78.4 million changing hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Mercurius 5RF , with 16.2 million shares worth S$790,000 traded as at 9.06am. Its shares were up 1.1 Singapore cents or 26.2 per cent at 5.3 cents.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) S68 also saw brisk trading, and its shares were up S$0.12 or 1.2 per cent at S$10.20. On Thursday, SGX RegCo announced that it would from Friday begin allowing special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to apply for a listing on the SGX mainboard.

Among index stocks, Singtel Z74 was actively traded in the morning, rising S$0.02 or 0.8 per cent to S$2.39. The telco on Thursday announced that its 35 per cent-owned joint-venture company PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) has agreed to sell 4,000 telecommunication towers to PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) for IDR6.2 trillion (S$580 million). As part of the transaction, Telkomsel has also entered into a 10-year lease arrangement with Mitratel for rental of tower space.

Banking stocks were mixed in early trade. DBS D05 rose S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent at S$30.12, while UOB U11 edged up S$0.01 or 0.04 per cent to S$25.57. However, OCBC O39 fell S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$11.58.

In the US, equity indices again finished at record highs on Thursday following better-than-expected weekly jobless claims data ahead of the closely watched August jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.4 per cent at 35,443.82, the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 4,536.95, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 0.1 per cent to 15,331.18.

Meanwhile, European shares closed higher on Thursday as expectations of improving economic growth supported oil stocks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.3 per cent, with oil stocks adding 1.8 per cent as crude prices surged on optimism over the economic recovery, a sharp decline in US crude stocks and a weaker dollar.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday as investors took heart from the rally in the US while looking ahead to August's jobs data due later in the day. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.3 per cent or 70.23 points at 28,613.74 in early trade, while the broader Topix index climbed 0.3 per cent or 5.39 points to 1,988.96.