Singapore stocks rise at Friday's open; STI up 0.3%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Friday (Nov 5), tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.3 per cent or 10.60 points to 3,230.29 as at 9 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 95 to 70, after 54.7 million securities worth S$85.3 million changed hands.

International Cement was one of the most actively traded counters by volume on Friday morning, with 4.5 million shares changing hands as at 9 am. The counter rose 3.2 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.032.

Trendlines was the top gainer in early trade, rising 9.5 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.115 as at 9 am.

Shares of Sembcorp Marine were also among the top 5 actively traded securities in terms of volume. They were up 1.2 per cent or S$0.001 at S$0.08 as at 9 am.

The trio of local banks were higher in early trade. DBS was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.15 at S$32.36, UOB gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.08 to S$27.28, while OCBC rose 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$11.91 as at 9 am.

In the US, stocks had another buoyant day of trading on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq again posting record highs and the Dow dipping only slightly. The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.4 per cent to close at 4,680.06, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8 per cent to 15,940.30, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1 per cent to 36,124.23.

European shares rose for a fifth straight session on Thursday to hit record highs, as investors took comfort from the Federal Reserve signalling it was in no hurry to hike interest rates, while the Bank of England left its benchmark rate at an all-time low.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.4 per cent higher at 483.21 on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday in cautious trade, ahead of key US jobs data due later in the day. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.1 per cent or 36.34 points at 29,758.03 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.2 per cent or 4.46 points to 2,051.10.