Singapore stocks open flat on Thursday; STI up 0.01%

SINGAPORE shares struggled to advance at Thursday's open, with slight gains from banks and mixed openings from real estate investment trusts and business trusts as the earnings season kicks into full gear.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) edged up 0.01 per cent or 0.32 point to 2,594.85 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 80 to 53, after 48.8 million securities worth S$49 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Rex International, which rose 1.1 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 19.1 cents with 8.2 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities include Genting Singapore, which fell 2 per cent or 1.5 Singapore cents to 75.5 cents with 6.8 million shares traded, and Singtel, which dipped 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.47 on a cum-dividend basis with 1.7 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks rose in early trade. DBS was trading up 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 at S$21.10, UOB advanced 0.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$20.44, while OCBC rose 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$9.11.

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Other active index counters include CapitaLand, which was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.84, and the Singapore Exchange, which lost 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$8.24.

In the US, Wall Street finished higher on Wednesday following a choppy session as investors weighed progress towards a coronavirus vaccine against worries over worsening US-China relations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.6 per cent to 27,005.73. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 per cent to 3,276.05, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2 per cent to 10,706.13.

Elsewhere in Asia, financial markets in Japan are closed on Thursday for a public holiday.