Singapore shares rise at Monday's open; STI up 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Monday, boosted by stronger openings from local banks and index counters. 

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.7 per cent or 17.98 points to 2,597.49 as at 9.08am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 101 to 57, after 67.1 million securities worth S$75.1 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters was Singtel, which rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.50, with 3.4 million shares changing hands as at 9.09am. 

Other heavily traded securities include Thai Beverage Public Company, which held steady at S$0.64 with 2.8 million shares traded, and CapitaLand Mall Trust, which advanced 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 with S$1.99 with 1.5 million shares traded. 

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 1.2 per cent or S$0.25 at S$20.89 as at 9.09am. UOB was up 1.1 per cent or S$0.22 to S$20.45, while OCBC rose 1.6 per cent or S$0.14 to S$9.12.

Other active index counters included Wilmar International, which gained 1.6 per cent or S$0.07 to S$4.36, as well as the Singapore Exchange which moved up 0.5 per cent or S$0.04 to S$8.36 as at 9.09am.

Wall Street stocks fell for a second session in a row on Friday amid rising US-China tensions and worries that equities have got overvalued. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7 per cent to 26,469.89. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.6 per cent to 3,215.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.9 per cent at 10,363.18.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Monday, with global risk aversion on intensifying China-US tensions. The Nikkei 225 index fell 1.1 per cent to 22,495.95 in early trade, while the Topix index lost 1 per cent to 1,556.67.