Singapore shares open higher on Wednesday following Wall Street gains; STI up 0.9%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Wednesday, buoyed by a bounce on Wall Street as US stocks finished a volatile trade session overnight sharply higher.

The Straits Times Index gained 25.85 points or 0.9 per cent to 2,858.39 as at 9.09am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 95 to 82, after 96.9 million securities worth S$167 million changed hands.

Rex International was the most traded counter by volume in the morning, down 0.4 Singapore cent or 2.7 per cent to 14.2 cents after 13.6 million shares were traded.

Other actives included Genting Singapore which was up 1.5 Singapore cents or 2 per cent to 75.5 cents with 3.8 million shares changing hands, and Singtel which fell S$0.01 or 0.4 per cent to S$2.87 on 2.6 million shares traded.

Meanwhile, SGX traded down S$0.05 or 0.5 per cent to S$9.14.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

All three local banks traded higher in the morning, as DBS rose S$0.15 or 0.7 per cent to S$21.64, OCBC gained S$0.17 or 1.8 per cent to S$9.89 while UOB increased S$0.31 or 1.4 per cent to S$22.25.

A day after suffering its worst decline in more than 11 years, the US Dow Jones Industrial Average piled on more than 1,150 points or 4.9 per cent to reach 25,016.38 at the closing bell.

The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 4.9 per cent to 2,881.84 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 5.0 per cent to 8,344.25.

In contrast, an early recovery for European shares proved short-lived on Tuesday as a jump in infections across the bloc unsettled investors already reeling from the oil price crash.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 1.1 per cent down, slipping further into bear territory after marking its worst day since the 2008 financial crisis on Monday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.86 per cent or 171.05 points to 19,696.07 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.47 per cent or 6.60 points at 1,400.08.