Singapore shares rise on Friday to end week in the black; STI up 0.3%

SINGAPORE shares rose on Friday (Oct 15) to end the week higher, amid positive sentiment across global markets.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.3 per cent or 9.05 points to close at 3,173.91. Over the course of the week, the index was up 2 per cent from last Friday's close of 3,112.81.

Venture Corp was the top STI gainer on Friday, climbing 2.8 per cent to close at S$19.04. Other local tech manufacturers such as AEM, UMS and Frencken also ended the day positive.

The biggest decliner on the STI was Jardine Cycle & Carriage, which snapped a 12-day winning streak, falling 2.6 per cent to close at S$23.04.

Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 298 to 188 after 1.8 billion securities worth S$1.3 billion changed hands.

Hatten Land shares were the most actively traded by volume, with some 321.9 million shares changing hands. The counter climbed 12.9 per cent to close at S$0.079.

The gains in the local market were mirrored across the region, following a rally on Thursday in Wall Street, where all three major US indices rose by more than 1.5 per cent.

Oanda senior market analyst, Jeffrey Halley, observed that US data overnight swung sentiment back into positive territory, boosted by strong earnings from US banking heavyweights.

"That pent-up buy-the-dip demand has, unsurprisingly, flowed through to Asian markets to varying degrees," he said.

Major indices in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan posted strong gains - rising between 1.5 and 2.4 per cent - while those in Shanghai, Australia and South Korea climbed between 0.4 and 0.9 per cent.