Singapore stocks join global peers in rally; STI opens 1.1% higher on Thursday

THE bullishness in global and regional stock markets rubbed off on Singapore’s, lifting the blue-chip benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) by 32.66 points or 1.1 per cent to 3,138.51 on Thursday (Jun 16) morning.

Gainers outnumbered losers 117 to 12 after 36.2 million securities worth S$44.4 million changed hands as at 9.01 am.

ThaiBev : Y92 0%was the top traded counter by volume, gaining 2.3 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.655 with some 6.9 million shares traded in the morning.

Other heavily traded securities include Sembcorp Marine : S51 0%, which edged up 0.9 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.116 with 5.7 million shares traded, as well as Golden Agri-Resources : E5H 0%, which remained flat at S$0.285 with 3.2 million shares traded. 

Among index counters, Singtel : Z74 0%remained unchanged at S$2.50 with 2.3 million shares changing hands at the open. The telco said it will acquire an additional 3.78 per cent stake in Intouch from Temasek’s Anderton Investments for S$330 million, raising its stake in the Thai telecommunications company to 24.99 per cent from 21.21 per cent. 

The trio of local banks were all in the green in early trade. DBS : D05 0% was up 1 per cent or S$0.29 at S$30.22, UOB : U11 0% also climbed 1 per cent or S$0.28 to S$27.23, while OCBC : O39 0% gained 1.1 per cent or S$0.12 to S$11.58.

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In the US, stocks rallied on Wednesday, applauding a large interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in hopes that inflation can be countered without prompting a recession.

The broad-based S&P 500, which entered a “bear market” earlier this week following the latest inflation data, gained 1.5 per cent to 3,789.99. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1 per cent to 30,668.53, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.5 per cent to 11,099.15.

Meanwhile, European stocks snapped their 6 day losing streak on Wednesday after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced measures to temper a bond market rout, even as some investors looking for a more decisive action were disappointed.

After an unscheduled meeting, the ECB said it would skew reinvestments of maturing debt to help more indebted euro zone members and would devise a new instrument to stop a fragmentation of the bloc’s bond market.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index advanced 1.4 per cent to 413.10 following 6 straight sessions of losses on worries that aggressive US rate hikes will push the world’s largest economy into a recession.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday, as investors cheered the US rate hike that boosted Wall Street shares. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 1.9 per cent or 493.81 points at 26,819.97 in early trade, while the broader Topix index surged 1.4 per cent or 26.57 points to 1,882.50.