Singapore stocks open higher on Friday; STI up 0.4%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street. The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.4 per cent or 13.43 points to 3,133.05 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 84 to 37, with 124.2 million securities worth S$78.9 million changing hands.

Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine) was the most actively traded counter by volume, with 86.6 million shares worth S$13.1 million traded as at 9.01am. Its shares were down 22.0 per cent or 4.2 Singapore cents to 14.9 cents.

Keppel was also heavily traded, with 2.2 million shares worth S$12.1 million traded. Its shares were up 6.3 per cent or S$0.32 at S$5.43.

Sembmarine and Keppel on Thursday had announced they were in talks to merge their offshore and marine operations. The groups had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to enter talks for a combined entity that will be owned by both Sembmarine's shareholders and Keppel's shareholders.

ComfortDelGro was also actively traded. Its shares were up 1.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.66.

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The three local banks were up in early trade. As at 9.01am, DBS was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.16 at S$29.66. OCBC was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.02 at S$11.09, and UOB was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.10 at S$25.77.

Over on Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished on Thursday at fresh records after US President Joe Biden reached a deal with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on a large infrastructure package.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 1 per cent at 34,196.82, led by industrial and financial companies. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent to 4,266.49, an all-time high, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.7 per cent to 14,369.71, its third straight record.

European stocks were also up on Thursday as the Bank of England's stance on inflation being temporary reassured investors. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.9 per cent at 457.04.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened higher on Friday as investors cheered news that Washington had reached an agreement over massive infrastructure spending plans. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 1 per cent or 279.36 points to 29,154.59 while the broader Topix index added 0.9 per cent, or 17.52 points, to 1,964.62.