Singapore shares rise at Tuesday's open; STI up 0.57% to 3,161.29

Vivienne Tay

Published Tue, Sep 24, 2019 · 01:26 AM

SINGAPORE stocks opened stronger on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index advancing 0.57 per cent or 18.05 points to 3,161.29 as at 9.01am on a flat Wall Street performance and weaker Europe performance.

On the Singapore Exchange, gainers outnumbered losers 57 to 26, or about 11 securities up for every five down, after 13.8 million securities worth S$41.4 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Rex International Holding headed up 1.2 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.083 with three million shares traded. Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust increased 0.6 per cent or S$0.02 to S$3.14 with 0.9 million shares traded. Hutchison Port Holdings Trust moved down 0.6 per cent or US$0.001 to US$0.167 with 0.7 million shares traded.

Active index stocks included City Developments, up 1.0 per cent or S$0.10 to S$9.76; Singapore Exchange, up 1.2 per cent or S$0.10 to S$8.39 on a cum dividend basis.

Financials also opened stronger, with United Overseas Bank up 0.4 per cent or S$0.09 to S$25.65; DBS Group Holdings up 0.7 per cent or S$0.17 to S$25.08; and OCBC Bank up 0.8 per cent or S$0.09 to S$10.94.

In other parts of the region, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday, trading cautiously following Japan's long weekend and Wall Street closing flat. The Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.18 per cent or 38.84 points at 22,117.93 in early trade, while the Topix index rose 0.33 per cent or 5.32 points at 1,621.55.

On Wall Street, stocks closed flat amid questions over trade and Federal Reserve interventions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 26,949.99, up 0.1 per cent. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 ended nearly flat at 2,991.77, while the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.1 per cent to 7,818.61.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 index on Monday dipped, with the FTSE 100 falling 0.3 per cent, while the FTSE 250 midcaps index shed 0.6 per cent. This comes amid weak German economic data which weighed on banking shares, offsetting a surge in travel operators and airlines after the collapse of travel firm Thomas Cook.