Singapore stocks rise at Monday’s open; STI up 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks started the week higher, despite Wall Street stocks retreating. European shares also hit their highest in over a year. 

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.3 per cent or 8.52 points to 3,311.18 as at 9.01 am on Monday (Apr 17).

Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 61 to 45 after 35.3 million securities worth S$35.1 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine , with 7.5 million shares traded at the open. The counter was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.117.

Medtecs International was also among the top five actively traded counters in terms of volume, with its shares up 3.2 per cent or S$0.006 to S$0.193 in early trade. 

The top traded index counter on Monday morning was Singtel , which rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.52.

The trio of local banks were trading mixed in the morning. DBS was up 0.7 per cent or S$0.21 to S$32.78, while OCBC and UOB were flat at S$12.84 and S$30.13 respectively.

Major US indices were in the red on Friday after poor US retail sales figures offset surprisingly good bank earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.4 per cent to 33,886.47. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2 per cent to 4,137.64, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.4 per cent to 12,123.47.

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Over in Europe, shares surged to over a one-year high on Friday following positive earnings by major US banks and optimism of an end to the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking cycle. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.6 per cent to end at 466.91.