Singapore shares open higher tracking Wall Street; STI up 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares started higher on Tuesday, tracking gains on Wall Street as investors cheered positive news about US President Donald Trump's health.

The Straits Times Index (STI) gained 12.54 points or 0.5 per cent to 2,529.77 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 116 to 30, after 54.1 million securities worth S$55.5 million changed hands.

Jiutian Chemical was the most traded counter by volume in the morning, rising 0.1 Singapore cent or 2 per cent to five cents after 11.4 million shares were traded.

Other actives included Avarga which was up one Singapore cent or 4.3 per cent at 24.5 cents with two million shares changing hands, and Singapore Press Holdings which rose S$0.01 or 1 per cent to S$1.05 on 1.6 million shares traded.

Wilmar International, the most traded security by value, gained S$0.05 or 1.1 per cent to S$4.56 after 1.8 million shares changed hands.

All three local banks gained ground in early trade, as DBS rose S$0.06 or 0.3 per cent to S$20.64, UOB gained S$0.09 or 0.5 per cent to S$19.53 while OCBC increased S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$8.60.

US stocks ended Monday with solid gains after Mr Trump announced during Monday trading he would be leaving the Walter Reed military medical centre he had checked into last week.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.7 per cent to finish at 28,148.64. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 1.8 per cent to 3,408.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq surged 2.3 per cent to 11,332.49.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.4 per cent or 103.36 points at 23,415.50, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.4 per cent or 6.99 points to 1,644.24.