Singapore stocks rise at Friday's open; STI up 0.6%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Friday (Jan 7) despite losses on Wall Street even as the market weighed the Federal Reserve's shift towards tighter monetary policy.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.6 per cent or 18.01 points to 3,202.31 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 79 to 28, after 129.4 million securities worth S$62.3 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Sembcorp Marine S51 , which held steady at S$0.082 with 13 million shares changing hands as at 9.03 am.

Other heavily traded securities include index counter Thai Beverage Y92 , which rose 1.5 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.67, with 3.9 million shares traded, and International Cement Group KUO , which dipped 3.9 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.025, with 3.2 million shares changing hands.

Singtel, which was also actively traded, was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 at S$2.35, with 3 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks advanced in early trade. DBS D05 was up 1.5 per cent or S$0.49 at S$34.31, UOB U11 climbed 0.9 per cent or S$0.26 to S$27.96, while OCBC O39 advanced 0.8 per cent or S$0.09 to S$11.77 as at 9.03 am.

Over on Wall Street, stocks finished modestly lower on Thursday (Jan 6) as investors digested mixed economic data amid concerns over tightening Federal Reserve monetary policy.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.1 per cent to end at 4,696.05, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.1 per cent to 15,080.86, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 per cent to 36,236.47.

Meanwhile, European stocks tumbled from record highs on Thursday as hawkish signals from the minutes of the Federal Reserve's December meeting battered technology shares amid the prospect of rising interest rates.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 1.3 per cent lower at 488.16, erasing all gains made in a rally that pushed it to record highs in the first 3 sessions of the year.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, rebounding from sharp falls in the previous session. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.8 per cent or 216.76 points to 28,704.63 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.6 per cent or 11.36 points to 2,008.37.