Singapore stocks extend rally at Thursday’s open; STI up 1%

SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger on Thursday (Jul 13) following overnight gains on the global market, as the easing of US inflation data stoked optimism of ending the interest rate hiking cycle soon.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) rose 1 per cent or 32.14 points to 3,207.5 as at 9.02 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 115 to 19, or about six securities up for every one down, after 114.5 million securities worth S$106 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Seatrium , which gained 0.7 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.142 with 33.5 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Thomson Medical , which rose 4.9 per cent or S$0.003 to S$0.064 with 14.3 million shares changing hands, as well as Thai Beverage , which gained 2.7 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.58 with 13.2 million shares transacted.

The trio of local banks all rose on Thursday morning. DBS gained 0.9 per cent or S$0.28 to S$31.29. OCBC rose 1.1 per cent or S$0.13 to S$12.28, while UOB advanced 0.7 per cent or S$0.18 to S$27.49.

US indices closed higher on Wednesday following the release of the slowest inflation rate since March 2021, boosting investor hope for the end of the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening campaign. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.3 per cent to 34,347.43. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 per cent to 4,472.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.2 per cent to 13,918.96.

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European shares also tracked the market rally on cooling inflation data. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 1.5 per cent higher at 458.54, extending gains to the fourth straight day.