Singapore shares rise at Wednesday’s open; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks opened slightly higher on Wednesday (Dec 20) following overnight gains on Wall Street and Europe.

The Straits Times Index (STI) headed up 0.1 per cent or 3.8 points to 3,120.42 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 67 to 28, after 27.1 million securities worth S$40.5 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Seatrium , which held steady at S$0.108 with five million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Rex International , which rose 2.3 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.176 with 4.3 million shares traded, as well as Genting Singapore , which lost 0.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.975 with 2.2 million shares traded.

Banking stocks mostly rose during early morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$31.69, UOB was flat at S$27.68, while OCBC added 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$12.51.

US stocks ended higher on Tuesday, extending a rally amid bullish investor sentiment and optimism over easing US monetary policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at a record for the fifth straight session, climbing 0.7 per cent to end at 37,557.92.

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The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent to 4,768.37, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.7 per cent to 15,003.22.

In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.4 per cent higher on Tuesday after comments from European Central Bank officials and data confirmed that inflation was cooling in the eurozone.