Singapore stocks post modest gains after Wall Street rally; STI up 0.2% at open

SINGAPORE shares continued to edge up on Thursday, after eking out modest gains the previous day and tracking a Wall Street rally overnight.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) gained 5.90 points or 0.2 per cent to 2,675.39 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 104 to 33, after some 65.9 million securities worth S$28.1 million changed hands.

Among the index stocks, the most heavily traded by volume was Genting Singapore, which slipped 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.7 per cent to 77 cents, with some 580,800 shares traded. CapitaLand, which also saw heavy trading, gained S$0.05 or 1.7 per cent to S$2.94, with nearly 520,000 shares changing hands.

The trio of banking stocks were mostly up in early trade. DBS gained S$0.07 or 0.3 per cent to S$21.86, United Overseas Bank added S$0.08 or 0.4 per cent to S$21.11, while OCBC Bank was flat at S$9.33.

Other active stocks include UG Healthcare, which advanced S$0.08 or 4.4 per cent to S$1.88.

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Meanwhile, Keppel Corp slipped S$0.07 or 1.1 per cent to S$6.06. In a bourse filing on Wednesday night, Keppel said the completion date of KrisEnergy's debt restructuring has been extended to Sept 30 from July 15, under an amended loan agreement with Kepinvest Singapore, which is wholly owned by Keppel.

Looking ahead, the Singapore market will be closed on Friday, which is also Polling Day.

Over on Wall Street, tech stocks propped up the US market overnight, lifting the Nasdaq to another record close on Wednesday as it climbed 1.4 per cent. The Dow gained 0.7 per cent, while the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.8 per cent.

European shares ended lower on Wednesday, weighed down by HSBC and Nokia, and as a surge in Covid-19 cases appeared to threaten a recovery in the global economy.

Elsewhere in Asia, stocks in Tokyo opened slightly higher on Thursday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.3 per cent, while the broader Topix index was flat in early trade.