Singapore shares open higher on Monday; STI up 0.14%

SINGAPORE shares started the week higher despite US stocks ending lower on Friday. Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 4.60 points or 0.14 per cent to 3,260.55 as at 9.07am on Monday.

Gainers outnumbered losers 82 to 41, after about 71.2 million securities worth S$68.5 million changed hands.

OEL was the most traded counter by volume in the morning, rising S$0.003 or 15 per cent to S$0.023 after 13.2 million shares were traded.

AusGroup was another actively traded stock, unchanged at S$0.051 after 11.6 million shares changed hands.

CapitaLand Mall Trust was one of the more heavily traded stocks by value, up S$0.02 or 0.8 per cent to S$2.54.

Among local lenders, DBS gained S$0.19 or 0.7 per cent to S$26.19 and UOB was up S$0.14 or 0.5 per cent to S$26.91, but OCBC dipped S$0.04 or 0.4 per cent to S$11.04.

All three major indices in the US retreated from Thursday's all-time highs on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 per cent at 28,823.77, the broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 per cent to 3,265.35 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.3 per cent at 9,178.86.

In Europe, shares edged down as the pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped in the final minutes of trading after spending most of the session in positive territory.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's market is closed for a public holiday.