Singapore stocks rise at Friday's open; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Friday (Feb 4) despite a drop in US shares on Thursday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.1 per cent or 4.30 points to 3,320.29 as at 9.03 am.

Gainers and losers were even at 61 after 61.9 million securities worth S$90.6 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Catalist-listed Sembcorp Marine S51 . Shares of the company were flat at S$0.083 with 10.7 million shares trading hands.

Rex International Holding 5WH was also one of the most actively traded securities on Friday. Shares of the oil and gas company rose 4.5 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.35.

Other heavily traded securities on Friday morning include Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) T82U and RH PetroGas T13 .

Suntec Reit traded down 1.9 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.54, while RH PetroGas traded up 2.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.182 as at 9.03 am.

The trio of local banks all rose on Friday morning. UOB U11 was up 0.7 per cent or S$0.23 to S$31.23, while DBS D05 climbed 0.1 per cent or S$0.05 to S$35.75 and OCBC O39 grew by 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$12.81.

Over on Wall Street, US shares closed lower on Thursday following weak earnings from Facebook parent Meta and worries over tightening monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.5 per cent to 35,111.16, while the broad-based S&P 500 shed 2.4 per cent to 4477.44 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.7 per cent to 13,878.82.

Meanwhile, European stocks tumbled on Thursday following signals that the European Central Bank would likely hike rates this year. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 1.8 per cent, with tech stocks performing the worst.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks rose slightly on Friday as investors digested sharp selloffs on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.01 per cent or 2.91 points to 27,244.22 in early trade and the broader Topix index was up 0.1 per cent or 1.69 points to 1,921.61.