Singapore stocks rise at Friday’s open; STI up 0.5%
Srinidhi Ragavendran
SINGAPORE shares climbed at the market open on Friday (Feb 2), tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.
The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.5 per cent or 15.32 points to reach 3,158.38 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 81 to 25, after 48.1 million securities worth S$52.8 million changed hands.
Seatrium was the most actively traded counter by volume, with 18.9 million shares changing hands. It gained 1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.101.
Thai Beverage was also briskly traded, but was flat at S$0.525.
The trio of banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS climbed 0.7 per cent or S$0.22 to S$32.05. UOB inched up 0.3 per cent or S$0.09 to S$28.43, while OCBC gained 0.8 per cent or S$0.10 to S$12.94.
Stocks on Wall Street bounced on Thursday, recovering from the prior session’s pullback in a sign of underlying bullishness in anticipation of easing United States monetary policy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.0 per cent at 38,519.84. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.3 per cent to 4,906.19, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.3 per cent to 15,361.64.
European shares slipped on Thursday, pulled down by downbeat updates from banks across the continent as well as drugmakers Roche and Sanofi, but Volvo Cars and Ferrari raced higher.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.5 per cent lower at 483.86.
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