Singapore stocks advance at Friday’s open, STI up 0.4%
SINGAPORE shares climbed on Friday (May 10) morning, mirroring overnight gains in the US and European markets.
As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) inched up 13.59 points or 0.4 per cent to 3,279.54. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 84 to 25 after 31.1 million securities worth S$42.7 million changed hands.
Aspen was the most heavily traded counter by volume. The counter rose 8 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.054, with 3.9 million securities transacted.
Other counters that were briskly exchanged included Yangzijiang Financial Holding, which advanced 1.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.325, after 3.4 million shares changed hands; Seatrium was up 2.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.90, with 1.9 million securities traded.
Banking stocks were mixed during early trade. DBS shed 0.1 per cent or S$0.05 to S$35.23, and OCBC climbed 1.1 per cent or S$0.15 to S$14.06 after it recorded a 5 per cent year-on-year increase in first quarter net profit to S$1.98 billion. UOB gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.10 to S$30.45.
Wall Street stocks gained some steam on Thursday, following the release of soft US jobs data, which lifted investor hopes for interest rate cuts later this year.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 0.3 per cent to 16,346.26, and the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.5 per cent to 5,214.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9 per cent to 39,387.76.
In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was propelled by strength in industrial stocks to close at a record high on Thursday. The benchmark index gained 0.2 per cent to close at 516.77.
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