Singapore shares rise at Wednesday's open; STI up 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Wednesday (Oct 13), boosted by gains from banks and a majority of index counters. This is despite overnight losses seen in overseas markets.

Singapore's Straits Times Index advanced 0.6 per cent or 18.16 points to 3,130.21 as at 9.03am. Gainers outnumbered losers 95 to 35, or about 3 securities up for every 1 down, after 109.1 million securities worth S$91.6 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Hatten Land, which was flat at S$0.07 with 8.9 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Starhill Global Reit, which gained 2.4 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.65, as well as CapitaLand China Trust (CLCT), which was down 4 per cent or S$0.05 at S$1.20, with 5.6 million shares traded.

CLCT resumed trading on Wednesday (Oct 13), after its manager announced on Tuesday (Oct 12) a S$297.7 million deal to acquire 4 assets in Shanghai, Kunshan, Wuhan and Chengdu, in its first foray into the China logistics sector.

Meanwhile, banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS was up 0.7 per cent or S$0.20 to S$30.33, UOB increased 0.8 per cent or S$0.20 at S$26.34, while OCBC rose 0.7 per cent or S$0.08 to S$11.68.

Other active index counters included Singapore Airlines, which remained unchanged at S$5.49, as well as Singtel, which was flat at S$2.47.

In the US, Wall Street ended lower after a choppy session on Tuesday (Oct 12), with all 3 major indices dropping for a 3rd straight session ahead of key economic data and earnings. Analysts fear companies will cut their earnings forecast due to rising labour and supply chain costs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.3 per cent at 34,378.34, the broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.2 per cent to 4,350.65, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.1 per cent at 14,465.92.

Over in Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.1 per cent amid worries about a fallout from China's struggling property sector after Evergrande missed its 3rd round of bond payments in 3 weeks.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday (Oct 13). The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.5 per cent to 28,088.57 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.3 per cent to 1,977.52.