Singapore shares rise at Monday's open; STI up 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Monday, buoyed by stronger openings from local banks.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.3 per cent or 8.13 points to 2,661.07 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 100 to 36, after 99 million securities worth S$42.6 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Medtecs International, which rose 8 per cent or S$0.04 to S$0.54 with 7.9 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Thai Beverage Public Company which advanced 1.4 per cent or one Singapore cent to 70.5 cents with 2.5 million shares traded, as well as AnAn International which was up 6.3 per cent or 0.4 Singapore cent to 6.8 cents with 1.9 million shares traded.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.3 per cent or S$0.07 at S$21.64, UOB was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.11 to S$20.96, while OCBC advanced 0.5 per cent or S$0.05 to S$9.25.

Other active index counters included Singtel which was down 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.52 on a cum-dividend basis and CapitaLand, which held steady at S$3.04 on a cum-dividend basis.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened higher on Monday, as investors cautiously observe a continued rebound of Covid-19 infections. The Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.1 per cent to 22,332.22, while the Topix index rose 0.2 per cent to 1,555.27.