Singapore stocks open higher on Friday; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares inched higher on Friday when markets opened, amid mixed trading on regional bourses and Wall Street overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 4.05 points or 0.1 per cent at 2,826.39 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 84 to 30, after 60.9 million securities worth S$54.1 million changed hands.

Keppel Corp was one of the more actively traded counters in terms of value on Friday morning. The stock gained 0.8 per cent or S$0.04 to S$5.19. It said on Friday morning that its asset management arm Keppel Capital and property arm Keppel Land have launched a Vietnam-focused real estate fund, which raised US$400 million in its first closing.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was among the active counters by volume in early trade, with around three million shares changing hands as at 9.01am. The counter was trading 0.6 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent lower at 90.5 cents.

Building maintenance firm ISOTeam's shares were one of the top losers on Friday morning, falling 11.6 per cent or 1.7 Singapore cents to 13 cents. This comes after the Singapore Exchange Regulation on Thursday warned shareholders and potential investors to exercise caution when dealing in its shares.

Shares of Hong Lai Huat Group also fell in early trade, dropping 9.1 per cent or 1.3 Singapore cents to 13 cents as at 9.01am. It announced on Thursday that it is proposing to undertake a renounceable non-underwritten rights issue to raise up to S$26.9 million to partly finance its second mixed-use development project in Phnom Penh.

US stocks ended mixed on Thursday. Equities were in the green most of the day, but weakened near the end of the session following a report that examined challenges in coronavirus vaccine supply chains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 per cent to 29,969.52, the broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.1 per cent to 3,666.72, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2 per cent to 12,377.18, its second record high in three sessions.

In Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index down 0.3 per cent or 82.69 points at 26,726.68 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.2 per cent or 2.63 points to 1,772.62. Meanwhile, the ASX 200 in Australia was trading slightly higher in the morning, up 0.3 per cent at 6,633.

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