Singapore shares rise at open after vaccinated travel lane news; STI up 0.8%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Friday following news of the Republic's cautious reopening of borders through vaccinated travel lanes.

The Singapore government is looking at vaccinated travel lanes with Germany and Brunei next month, allowing arriving travellers to do away with serving a stay-home notice period.

The Republic will also streamline its recognition of overseas Covid-19 vaccines, including for short-term visitors, foreign workers and students, and returning Singapore residents.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index advanced 0.8 per cent or 24.81 points to 3,111.78 as at 9.03am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 113 to 27, or about four securities up for every one down, after 60 million securities worth S$72.3 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was GSS Energy, 41F which rose 9.2 per cent, or 0.6 Singapore cent to 7.1 cents with 10.7 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Sembcorp Marine, S51 which increased 0.9 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 10.8 cents, with 5.6 million shares traded, as well as Singtel, Z74 which was up 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.39, with 5.2 million shares traded.

Bank stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS D05 was trading up 0.8 per cent or S$0.23 at S$30.15, UOB U11 gained 0.9 per cent or S$0.24 to S$25.92, while OCBC O39 rose 1 per cent or S$0.12 to S$11.78.

Other active index counters included Capitaland, C31 which advanced 1.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$4.02, and Singapore Airlines, which rose 2 per cent or S$0.10 to S$5.06.

In the US, stocks ended a choppy session nearly flat on Thursday as markets weighed better employment data against global growth worries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2 per cent to 34,894.12. The S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent at 4,405.80 while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.1 per cent to 14,541.79.

European shares tumbled to their biggest daily loss in a month on Thursday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 1.6 per cent, with mining stocks falling 4.2 per cent in their biggest one-day decline since March.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday amid cautious trading. The Nikkei 225 index lost 0.1 per cent to 27,260.28 in early trade, while the Topix index dropped 0.1 per cent to 1,895.39.