Singapore stocks rise at Tuesday's open; STI climbs 0.9%

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday (Mar 1) morning after dropping slightly on Monday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 0.9 per cent or 30.31 points to 3,272.55 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 104 to 22 after 58.5 million securities worth S$123.1 million changed hands.

The most actively traded counter by volume on Tuesday morning was mainboard-listed Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) Z74 . The counter rose by 2.4 per cent or S$0.06 to S$2.58.

Singapore Press Holdings T39 was also actively traded at Tuesday's open. Shares of the company traded up 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.34. The group said on Feb 28 that it has planned to hold a scheme meeting on Mar 22, 2022, to vote on the takeover offer from consortium Cuscaden Peak.

Another heavily traded security was RH Petrogas T13 . The counter traded flat at S$0.205.

The trio of local banks were all in green on Tuesday morning.

DBS D05 climbed up 0.9 per cent or S$0.30 to S$34.12, OCBC O39 jumped 0.9 per cent or S$0.11 to S$11.78 and UOB U11 rose 2.3 per cent or S$0.69 to S$30.60 as at 9.02 am.

Over on Wall Street, US stocks mostly closed lower on Monday as tougher sanctions against Russia exacerbated worries over the economic hit from the Ukraine crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.5 per cent at 33,892.60. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.2 per cent to 4,373.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 per cent to 13,751.40.

Meanwhile, European stocks cut almost all session losses on Monday as Russia and Ukraine held ceasefire talks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended 0.1 per cent lower after having fallen nearly 2 per cent in the session, as investors bought defensive and technology names.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened higher on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 1.2 per cent, or 317.84 points, to 26,844.66 in early trade, while the broader Topix index climbed 0.9 per cent, or 17.23 points, to 1,904.16.