Singapore stocks: STI resumes Thursday afternoon up 0.09% on day

SINGAPORE shares held onto their gains as trading resumed on Thursday afternoon amid waning investor worries over US-Iran tensions. The Straits Times Index was up 0.09 per cent or 2.89 points on the day to 3,248.78 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 214 to 130, after about 880.9 million securities worth S$673.4 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, AusGroup slipped 3.5 per cent, or 0.2 Singapore cent to S$0.055 with 84.7 million shares traded, while ASTI gained 12.3 per cent or 0.6 cent to S$0.055, with 56 million shares traded.

Banking stocks opened stronger or held steady, DBS gained 0.5 per cent or 12 Singapore cents to S$25.85, UOB inched up 0.1 per cent or three Singapore cents to S$26.75, and OCBC remained unchanged at S$11.01.

Other active securities included CapitaLand Commercial Trust which rose 2 per cent or four Singapore cents to S$2.07, and Singtel which dropped 1.2 per cent, or four Singapore cents to S$3.35.

On Thursday morning, the telco announced that India associate Bharti Airtel has proposed to raise up to US$3 billion from a mix of debt and equity, which will enable it to pay a hefty fine as well as finance capital expenditure.

Elsewhere in the region, Asian markets reversed some of their losses incurred on Wednesday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1 per cent. Hong Kong was also up 1.15 per cent and Shanghai was up 0.7 per cent.