Singapore stocks rise at Wednesday's open; STI edge up 0.03%

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Wednesday (Feb 9) after US shares ended in the green on Tuesday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) edged up 0.03 per cent or 0.92 point to 3,402.66 as at 9.03 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 89 to 44 after 81.2 million securities worth S$109.5 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Catalist-listed DiSa 532 . Shares of the company rose 16.7 per cent or S$0.001 to trade at S$0.007 with 14.4 million shares changing hands.

Rex International 5WH was also among the most heavily traded securities on Wednesday morning. Shares of the oil and gas company were down 1.3 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.395.

Other active counters by volume include Thomson Medical Group A50 and mainboard-listed Keppel DC Reit (real estate investment trust) AJBU . Shares of Thomson Medical traded flat at S$0.085, while units of Keppel DC Reit rose 2.7 per cent or S$0.06 to S$2.25.

The trio of local banks were mixed at the open. UOB U11 was down 0.8 per cent or S$0.27 to S$32.38, after shares of the bank rose to an all-time high of S$32.86 on Tuesday. DBS D05 was up 0.2 per cent or S$0.07 to S$36.65, while OCBC O39 traded flat at S$13.13 as at 9.03 am.

Over on Wall Street, US stocks closed higher on Tuesday, following solid earnings from DuPont, Harley Davidson and others. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1 per cent to 35,462.78. While the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.8 per cent to 4,521.54 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.3 per cent to 14,194.45.

Meanwhile, European shares remained largely unchanged on Tuesday as rising bond yields pressured technology stocks, while a sharp fall in oil prices took the shine off strong earnings from oil company BP. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up by a slight 0.01 per cent to 465.34.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.8 per cent or 218.17 points at 27,502.69 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.7 per cent or 13.4 points to 1,947.46.