SINGAPORE stocks rebounded on Tuesday morning, with the Straits Times Index (STI) gaining 62.56 points or 2.4 per cent to 2,676.44 as at 9.02am.

This came after Singapore's Multi-Ministry Taskforce on Monday evening said that most businesses will be able to reopen from Friday. Nonetheless, economists warned that businesses still face a tough road ahead, even as the Republic moves into phase two of reopening.

The benchmark STI had fallen 2.6 per cent to finish at 2,613.88 on Monday in a third straight day of losses, after a rise in new Covid-19 infections in the US and China stoked fears that lockdowns might be reimposed. The decline also came after Monday's announcement that Singapore's employment in the first quarter this year performed worse than expected, with total employment diving a record 25,600.

On Tuesday at 9.02am, the Singapore bourse's gainers outnumbered losers 184 to 15, with some 82.8 million securities worth S$118.3 million changing hands.

Among the index securities, the most heavily traded by volume was ComfortDelGro, which put on S$0.09 or 5.7 per cent to S$1.67 with 6.4 million shares traded.

Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) added S$0.06 or 3.2 per cent to S$1.92 with 2.5 million units changing hands. On Monday, the manager of MLT said the trust has inked a conditional agreement to buy a Brisbane warehouse for A$21.25 million (S$20.17 million).

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Meanwhile, the trio of local banks were all up in early trade. DBS advanced S$0.81 or 3.8 per cent to S$22.11, UOB rose S$0.56 or 2.7 per cent to S$21.38 on an ex-dividend basis, and OCBC Bank gained S$0.29 or 3.2 per cent to S$9.23.

Other active index securities include SATS, which jumped S$0.18 or 5.8 per cent to S$3.28, and CapitaLand Mall Trust, which added S$0.11 or 5.4 per cent to S$2.15.

Over in the US, Wall Street stocks staged a comeback on Monday after the Federal Reserve said it would begin buying the debt of US companies to help support the economic recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 25,763.16, up 0.6 per cent, after regaining more than 900 points from its session low. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.8 per cent to close at 3,066.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.4 per cent to 9,726.02.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei soared more than 3 per cent at Tuesday's open, tracking the Wall Street rally overnight, and as investors look forward to an upcoming Bank of Japan policy decision.