Singapore stocks rise at Tuesday's open; STI up 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Tuesday (Dec 21), recouping some of the heavy losses in Monday's session.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.5 per cent or 15.19 points to 3,088.16 as at 9.01 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 83 to 43, after 41.6 million securities worth S$43.8 million changed hands.

Digital security company DiSa 532 was the most actively traded in terms of volume. The counter was trading flat at S$0.005, after 13.4 million shares were traded.

Palm oil plantation company Golden Agri-Resources E5H was also trading unchanged at S$0.235, with 1.5 million shares changing hands.

Index counter Thai Beverage Y92 was also among the most actively traded counters in early morning session, with 407,200 shares changing hands. The counter opened lower at S$0.655, down 0.8 per cent or S$0.005.

Banking stocks were in the green on Tuesday morning at 9.01 am. DBS D05 was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.13 at S$32.28, UOB U11 rose 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$26.67, while OCBC O39 advanced 0.7 per cent or S$0.08 to S$11.28.

Over on Wall Street, stocks ended sharply lower on Monday (Dec 20) as fears over the Omicron variant rise, while President Joe Biden's spending plan faces opposition from a Democratic senator.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.1 per cent to 4,568.02, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.2 per cent to 14,980.94, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 34,932.16, down 1.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, European stocks dropped on Monday in their worst session in 3 weeks amid a wider sell-off in equities, with investors fretting over potential tighter pandemic curbs hitting the global economy.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 1.4 per cent to 467.35, its lowest close in 2 weeks.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday with investors seeking bargains after a sharp fall in the previous session, shrugging off a rout on Wall Street.

The Nikkei 225 index was up 1.5 per cent or 404.69 points at 28,342.50 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 1.2 per cent or 24.20 points to 1,965.53.