Singapore shares show optimism at Wednesday’s open; STI up 0.2%

THE Singapore market opened Wednesday (Dec 21) on a slightly optimistic note following a positive session on Wall Street that ended its four-day slump.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 4.97 points or 0.2 per cent to 3,258.94 points as 28.8 million securities worth S$48.1 million changed hands as at 9.01 am. Advancers outweighed decliners 54 to 38.

Golden Agri-Resources kickstarted the session as the top traded counter by volume, opening flat at S$0.255 with three million shares traded.

This came after the palm oil group said on Tuesday that it expects to be profitable in Q4 as well as the full year, despite anticipating a fair value loss of US$230 million for the fourth quarter ending Dec 31.

Index counter Genting Singapore also experienced brisk trading in the morning, with 2.4 million shares changing hands as the counter rose S$0.005 or 0.5 per cent to S$0.935.

Gold mining investment group Shen Yao appeared among the top traded securities on Wednesday. The counter was unmoved at S$0.001, but two million shares were traded.

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All three local banks opened in positive territory. DBS gained S$0.08 or 0.2 per cent to S$34.29, UOB expanded S$0.01 or 0.03 per cent to S$31.05, while OCBC grew S$0.01 or 0.1 per cent to S$12.30.

In the US, shares reversed the four-day slump and ended the day mostly higher on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 0.3 per cent to 32,849.74 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was nearly flat at 10,547.11. The broad-based S&P 500 ticked up 0.1 per cent to 3,821.62.

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On the other hand, European stocks fell on Tuesday, pulled down by rate-sensitive tech and industrial stocks, after the Bank of Japan rattled global markets with a surprise policy shift that would allow long-term interest rates to rise further.

The regionwide Stoxx 600 index closed down 0.4 per cent.