Singapore stocks open slightly higher on Tuesday; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares opened slightly higher on Tuesday, after Wall Street retreated from record levels ahead of earnings reports and key economic data this week.

The Straits Times Index (STI) inched up 0.07 per cent or 2.33 points to 3,176.26 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 81 to 54, after 105.3 million securities worth S$47 million changed hands.

Oceanus was the most actively traded counter shortly after the market opened, with 29.4 million shares worth S$1.3 million changing hands as at 9.01am. The stock rose 7.5 per cent or 0.3 Singapore cent to 4.3 cents.

Jiutian Chemical also saw brisk trading, with 15.3 million shares worth S$1.56 million changing hands. Its share price slipped 1 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 10.1 cents.

The trio of local banks were mixed in early trade. DBS was down 0.4 per cent or S$0.12 at S$28.81, OCBC slipped 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$11.78, while UOB was flat at S$26.02 as at 9.01am.

Over on Wall Street, stocks pulled back from their record high on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.2 per cent to close at 33,745.40, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.4 per cent to 13,850.00, while the broad-based S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 4,127.99.

European shares fell on Monday from their all-time high, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index ending about 0.5 per cent lower, after closing at a record high last Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.2 per cent or 65.71 points at 29,604.44, while the broader Topix index also rose 0.2 per cent or 3.03 points to 1,957.62.