Singapore shares open higher on Monday; STI up 0.8%

SINGAPORE shares started the week higher after US markets recorded gains on Friday.

The Straits Times Index increased 20.56 points or 0.8 per cent to 2,538.72 as at 9.05am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 103 to 41, after 87.9 million securities worth S$64 million changed hands.

Among the more active counters in the morning, Singtel rose S$0.05 or 1.9 per cent to S$2.75 on 3.5 million shares traded while Lippo Malls Trust gained 0.5 Singapore cent or 3.7 per cent to 14.2 cents after three million units were traded.

Cancer diagnostics company Biolidics lost S$0.06 or 13.3 per cent to S$0.39 on 2.9 million shares traded. This comes after it said on Sunday that it was unlikely to be affected by allegations against Aytu Bioscience, its coronavirus test kit distributor in the US.

All three local banks gained ground in early trade, as DBS rose S$0.12 or 0.6 per cent to S$18.79, OCBC increased S$0.04 or 0.5 per cent to S$8.69 and UOB was up S$0.05 or 0.3 per cent to S$19.61.

Cautious optimism on Wall Street propelled US stocks to a positive finish on Friday, despite mounting evidence of the coronavirus pandemic's deep damage to the American economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1.1 per cent at 23,775.27, the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 1.4 per cent to end at 2,836.74 and the tech-rich Nasdaq finished 1.7 per cent higher at 8,634.52.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks also opened higher on Monday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.9 per cent or 171.27 points at 19,433.27 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.5 per cent or 6.75 points to 1,428.04.