Singapore stocks rise at Friday’s open, STI up 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger in early trade on Friday (Oct 28) after a mixed showing in global markets.

As at 9.03 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.6 per cent or 18.33 points to 3,033.57.

Gainers outnumbered losers 68 to 49 after 108 million securities worth S$81.4 million had changed hands.

Offshore and marine (O&M) counters were two of the most actively traded by volume. Sembcorp Marine saw 75.9 million shares traded, rising 1.6 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.124 after the group announced simplified plans for its proposed merger with Keppel Corporation ’s O&M unit. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding climbed 0.8 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.25 with 2.8 million shares changing hands in early trade.

Index counter Thai Beverage also saw brisk trading activity at the open, with 1.9 million shares transacted. The counter dipped 0.9 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.565.

The trio of local banks opened Friday stronger. DBS rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.08 to S$32.89, while OCBC increased 0.9 per cent or S$0.11 to S$11.89. UOB was the standout performer, up 1.9 per cent or S$0.49 to S$26.51, following the morning’s announcement that the bank’s net profit for its third quarter had risen 34 per cent.

In the US, Wall Street stocks ended Thursday mixed as markets took in a range of company earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6 per cent to 32,033.28. The broader-based S&P 500 lost 0.6 per cent to 3,807.30, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 1.6 per cent to 10,792.68.

In Europe, stocks emerged from their session lows and closed nearly flat on Thursday after the European Central Bank raised interest rates by an expected 75 basis points and signalled a slower pace of rate hikes going forward.

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Stocks to watch: UOB, Sembmarine, Keppel, CDLHT, CapitaLand Ascott Trust, MPACT, Starhill Global Reit

The region-wide Stoxx 600 index closed flat at 410.19, with banking-heavy Italian and Spanish indexes outperforming.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo markets opened lower on Friday following falls in US tech shares. Investors’ eyes will be on a policy decision from the Bank of Japan due later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.9 per cent, or 250.72 points, at 27,094.52 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.5 per cent, or 10.26 points, at 1,895.30.