Singapore stocks open higher on Friday; STI up 0.4%
Mia Pei
SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger on Friday (Dec 22), tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.4 per cent or 12.85 points to 3,125.35 as at 9.02 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 85 to 30 after 69.3 million securities worth S$49.1 million changed hands.
The most active counter by volume was Seatrium , which held steady at S$0.113 with 37.6 million shares changing hands.
Other heavily traded securities included Oceanus , which remained unchanged at S$0.008, with 3.4 million shares transacted, and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding , which rose 1.4 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.45 after 2.9 million shares traded.
Banking stocks traded mixed in morning trading. DBS gained 0.4 per cent or S$0.13 to S$31.80, and OCBC advanced 0.6 per cent or S$0.08 to S$12.51. UOB lost 0.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$27.40.
US indices bounced back on Thursday, driven by bullish investment sentiments amid moderating inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.9 per cent higher at 37,404.35. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1 per cent to 4,746.75, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tacked on 1.3 per cent to 14,963.87.
Over in Europe, shares retreated after two sessions of gains. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed down 0.2 per cent, with most regional peers ending the session flat to slightly lower.
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