Singapore stocks rise at Wednesday’s open; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE equities advanced at the opening bell on Wednesday (Mar 20) morning, mirroring overnight gains on global markets.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) rose 7.39 points or 0.2 per cent to 3,180.94. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 80 to 23 after 84.7 million securities worth S$57.1 million changed hands. 

Seatrium was the most heavily traded counter by volume. It climbed S$0.001 or 1.3 per cent to S$0.08 after 47.3 million securities were transacted. 

Other companies that were briskly traded included Singtel, which rose S$0.02 or 0.8 per cent to S$2.53 following news on Tuesday about its launch of a cloud computing offering with Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, and Thai Beverage, which traded flat at S$0.49 with 3.9 million shares changing hands. 

Banking stocks were mixed in early trade. DBS shed S$0.08 or 0.2 per cent to S$34.90. OCBC climbed S$0.05 or 0.4 per cent to S$13.42, and UOB inched up S$0.05 or 0.2 per cent to S$29.05. 

On Wall Street, stocks advanced on Tuesday as investors were bullish ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent to 5,178.51, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average secured a gain of 0.8 per cent to 39,110.76. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.4 per cent to 16,166.79. 

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In Europe, stocks were strengthened by advances in the financial and energy sectors as investors await upcoming interest-rate decisions from global central banks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.3 per cent at 505.23.