Singapore stocks rise at Monday's open; STI up 0.7%

SINGAPORE shares advanced in early trade on Monday (Dec 13), after stocks rallied on Wall Street over an inflation reading that was in line with consensus.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.7 per cent or 21.1 points to 3,156.71 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 83 to 26, after 123.7 million securities worth S$55.4 million changed hands.

Digital security firm DiSa 532 was the most traded in terms of volume, rising S$0.001 or 16.7 per cent to S$0.007 after 71.6 million shares were traded.

Thai Beverage Y92 was also actively traded, gaining S$0.005 or 0.8 per cent to S$0.67, with 3.4 million shares changing hands.

Index counter Genting Singapore G13 also saw heavy trading on Monday morning, with 3.7 million shares traded. The counter edged up S$0.01 or 1.3 per cent to S$0.80.

Meanwhile, the trio of local banks were in the green. DBS was up S$0.31 or 1 per cent at S$32.21, UOB gained S$0.18 or 0.7 per cent to S$26.96, while OCBC edged up S$0.07 or 0.6 per cent to S$11.42 as at 9.02 am.

Over at Wall Street, stocks advanced on Friday (Dec 10) as market participants digested an inflation reading that was in line with consensus, but also marked the largest annual increase in consumer prices in nearly 4 decades.

The broad-based S&P 500 notched 0.9 per cent to an all-time closing high of 4,712.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.7 per cent to 15,630.60.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.6 per cent to 35,970.99.

Meanwhile in Europe, stocks fell on Friday on nervousness around the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.3 per cent, down for the third straight session, to 475.56.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday as investors took heart from US rallies as they digested the Bank of Japan's key business confidence survey.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.1 per cent at 28,747.28 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.9 per cent to 1,992.98.