Singapore stocks rise at Thursday's open; STI up 0.4%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Thursday, despite falls on Wall Street overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) gained 0.4 per cent or 12.87 points to 3,117.08 as at 9.01am. Gainers outnumbered losers 78 to 40, with 42.8 million securities worth S$63.8 million changing hands.

Index stock Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the most actively traded counter by volume with 4.5 million shares worth S$6.6 million traded within the first minute of market open. The counter gained 2.8 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.47.

Golden Agri-Resources also saw brisk trading, with 2.2 million shares worth S$0.5 million changing hands. Its shares slipped 2.1 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 23 cents.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), another index stock, was also actively traded, with 0.8 million shares worth S$3.7 million traded as at 9.01am. The counter slid 1.3 per cent or S$0.06 to S$4.64. This comes after SIA said in a financial results filing on Wednesday that in FY2021 ended March 31, it chalked up a record net loss of S$4.27 billion in the "toughest year in its history".

The trio of local banks were all higher in early trade. DBS saw the greatest rise at 1.2 per cent or S$0.34 to S$29.69. UOB rose 0.4 per cent or S$0.09 to S$25.49, while OCBC advanced 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$12 as at 9.01am.

Over on Wall Street, major indices have fallen for three consecutive sessions, closing modestly lower on Wednesday, with oil-related equities dropping as Federal Reserve meeting minutes showed the US central bank inching towards shifting its monetary policy. Concerns over excessive valuations also added to inflation worries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5 per cent to 33,896.04, more than 400 points above session lows on Wednesday, the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.3 per cent to 4,115.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq ended flat at 13,299.74.

Tracking weakness on Wall Street, European stocks posted their worst daily fall in one week on Wednesday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 1.5 per cent, but was less than 2 per cent below its all-time high. Top decliners were miners, travel and technology stocks.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday, following losses on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.5 per cent or 134.79 points to 27,909.66 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.3 per cent or 4.82 points to 1,890.42.