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

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Wednesday (Oct 20), tracking overnight gains from Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.4 per cent or 11.15 points to 3,210.16 as at 9.01 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 99 to 40 after 94 million securities worth S$64.5 million changed hands.

Metal Component shares were among the most actively traded securities by volume on Wednesday morning, with 4.3 million shares changing hands as at 9 am. The counter rose 6.3 per cent or S$0.003 to S$0.051.

Sembcorp Marine, among the top 5 actively traded counters by volume, fell 1.2 per cent or S$0.001 at S$0.08 after 12.7 million shares changed hands.

Meanwhile, Mermaid Maritime shares were up 12.9 per cent or S$0.011 to S$0.096 as at 9 am.

The trio of local banks also saw gains on Wednesday morning. DBS was up 0.6 per cent or S$0.18 to S$31.40, UOB rose 0.5 per cent or S$0.12 to S$26.89, while OCBC edged up 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$11.99 as at 9.11 am.

In the US, Wall Street stocks turned in another positive session on Tuesday (Oct 19), shrugging off lackluster housing data as mostly good earnings lifted confidence about results in the coming days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6 per cent to end the day at 35,457.31. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.7 per cent to close at 4,519.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also won 0.7 per cent to 15,129.09.

Some positive earnings and defensive buying kept Europe's main stock index in the black on Tuesday, helping offset losses in Sweden's Ericsson and French consumer goods giant Danone after downbeat results.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.3 per cent, staying close to one-month highs.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday, extending US rallies supported by buoyant corporate earnings, with a cheaper yen also helping boost Japanese shares.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.6 per cent or 184.51 points at 29,400.03 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.5 per cent or 11.01 points to 2,037.58.