Singapore shares open higher tracking Wall Street rise; STI up 1%

SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger on Friday after Wall Street finished a volatile session higher.

Singapore's Straits Times Index headed up 1 per cent or 23.1 points to 2,334.10 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 104 to 58, after 86.2 million securities worth S$105.1 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings, which rose 1.2 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.83, with 4.7 million shares traded. Keppel Infrastructure Trust was up 1.4 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 36.5 Singapore cents, with 3.3 million shares traded. Meanwhile, Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust rose 8 per cent or S$0.09 to S$1.22, with 3.3 million shares traded.

Banking stocks were mixed in morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.4 per cent or S$0.06 at S$17.46 on a cum-dividend basis, UOB fell 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$18.33 on a cum-dividend basis, while OCBC rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.05 to S$8.13 on a cum-dividend basis.

Other active index counters included Singtel, which was up 1.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.39 and Venture Corp, which rose 0.5 per cent or S$0.07 to S$13.68.

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In the US, stocks finished higher on Thursday following a volatile session as investors weighed massive government stimulus measures against some of the first data pointing to the sharp US economic slowdown. The Dow gained 1 per cent to 20,087.40, after swinging more than 1,200 points during the day.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 climbed 0.5 per cent to 2,409.40, while the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.3 per cent to 7,150.58.

European shares ended higher on Thursday after more emergency stimulus from the Bank of England, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index ending 2.9 per cent higher.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo markets were closed due to a public holiday.