Singapore stocks rise at Wednesday's open; STI up 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks started the day higher on Wednesday (Dec 22), as Wall Street rebounded from an Omicron-fuelled sell-off.

The Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 0.3 per cent or 9.25 points to 3,094.33 as at 9.01 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 101 to 29 after 64 million securities worth S$37.4 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was offshore and marine builder Sembcorp Marine S51 , which was flat at S$0.083 after 9.5 million shares changed hands.

Shares of FJ Benjamin F10 were also heavily traded, up 19.1 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.025 after 4.9 million shares were traded. This comes after the retail group said on Tuesday (Dec 21) that it will raise S$3 million from a Far East Organization unit for expansion.

Index counter Thai Beverage Y92 was among the most actively traded securities, with 1.7 million shares changing hands. The counter rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.66.

The trio of local banks were in the green on Wednesday morning as at 9.01 am. DBS D05 was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.13 to S$32.27 and UOB U11 rose 0.5 per cent or S$0.14 to S$26.79, while OCBC O39 climbed 0.5 per cent or S$0.06 to S$11.27.

In the US, major stock indices closed sharply higher on Tuesday (Dec 21), boosted by Nike and Micron Technology following their earnings, as stocks recovered from the session before.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 560.54 points or 1.6 per cent to 35,492.7, the broad-based S&P 500 gained 81.21 points or 1.8 per cent to 4,649.23, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 360.14 points or 2.4 per cent to 15,341.09.

Meanwhile, European shares ended higher on Tuesday, recovering Monday's (Dec 20) losses, with a jump in commodity-linked and travel stocks offsetting concerns about the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 added 1.4 per cent to close at 473.99, with miners and oil stocks among the biggest winners amid higher copper and crude prices. Travel shares also gained.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday, tracking rallies on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.5 per cent or 153.27 points at 28,670.86 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.5 per cent or 9.65 points to 1,979.44.