SINGAPORE shares started strong on Monday, on the back of news over the weekend that Democrat challenger Joe Biden had captured the US presidency as voters rebuffed Republican incumbent Donald Trump's leadership.

Pan Jingyi, senior market strategist at IG Singapore, told The Business Times (BT) on Monday that with the victor from the US presidential election confirmed, the extended period of uncertainty from awaiting the results has ended, and the risk for more difficult legal challenges in overturning the results has been reduced.

"In turn, we have seen risk sentiment improving into Monday with US futures to Asia markets cheering the elimination of this uncertainty," said Ms Pan.

On the Singapore bourse, the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) jumped 32.24 points or 1.3 per cent to 2,610.92 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outpaced losers 128 to 33, after 98.5 million securities worth S$61.3 million changed hands.

Among the index securities, the most heavily traded by volume was Genting Singapore, which gained 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.7 per cent to 69 cents, with 2.2 million shares traded.

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CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose S$0.06 or 3.2 per cent to S$1.93, after 1.8 million units changed hands.

Amid a sea of green, banking stocks were up in early trade. DBS climbed S$0.36 or 1.6 per cent to S$22.85, UOB advanced S$0.29 or 1.4 per cent to S$20.74, while OCBC surged S$0.14 or 1.6 per cent to S$9.07.

Other active counters included Venture Corp, which jumped S$0.59 or almost 3 per cent to S$20.41. This comes after the electronics manufacturing services firm on Friday posted a 5.9 per cent decline in its third-quarter net profit to S$80.2 million from a year ago, though this was an improvement from its Q2 showing.

Meanwhile, StarHub put on S$0.03 or 2.5 per cent to S$1.23. The mainboard-listed telco on Friday said it is on track to have a new chief executive by early next year, even as it turned in another quarter of double-digit profit declines.

Bucking the upward trend, however, was Singapore Airlines, which slipped S$0.05 or 1.4 per cent to S$3.43. This comes as the national carrier's net loss in the quarter to September doubled that of the earlier three months, dragged by impairments for older aircraft and acquisition goodwill, as well as a S$41.7 million retrenchment cost, it announced on Friday.

Over in the US, Wall Street finished their best week in months with a muted session on Friday as Mr Biden inched closer to victory.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished at 3,509.44, down less than 0.1 per cent for the session, but up 7.3 per cent for the week, its best since April, AFP reported. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2 per cent to 28,323.40, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up less than 0.1 per cent to 11,895.23.

European stocks closed slightly lower on Friday, taking the shine off a 7 per cent rally last week. The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.2 per cent after a five-day winning streak that marked the index's best week since early June.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday following the election of Mr Biden as the next US president. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 1.1 per cent or 274.31 points to 24,599.54 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.9 per cent or 14.95 points to 1,673.44.

Said IG Singapore's Ms Pan: "Broadly, a Biden presidency had also been widely viewed as Asia-friendly, with de-escalating trade tensions expected under the president-elect.

"Markets will miss the fiscal boost that would be expected with a 'blue sweep' but it has since come around to the idea that a split Congress could be beneficial to avoid the tax hike aspects of Biden's plans."

Likewise, Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX, noted that Asia-Pacific stocks may gain on Biden's election victory as he could bring a fresh chapter to US foreign policy. Having a Democrat as president may also point to a higher chance to push through a trillion-dollar relief package that might be needed to shore up growth amid the pandemic, Ms Yang said. Nonetheless, she added that downside risks remain on civil tensions in the wake of election results, Mr Trump's dispute over allegedly fake votes, as well as the alarming speed of increase in Covid-19 infections around the globe.

Asked how the election would affect Singapore businesses in the region, Victor Mills, chief executive of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, told BT on Sunday that Mr Biden's immediate priority will not be Asean or the Asia-Pacific, but to deal with the pandemic and to rebuild the US economy.

"Notwithstanding this, Mr Biden served for eight years as vice-president in the Obama administration which was the first US administration to pivot to South-east Asia and treat Asean as a respected bloc. We can expect a continuation of this approach under a Biden administration," said Mr Mills.

That said, he noted that a Biden administration will be tough on China in terms of intellectual property, human rights and trade.

Added Mr Mills: "This election was about reclaiming the soul of the US and reclaiming America's global leadership role... More voters have voted this time than in any previous election because more was at stake... The people have spoken. The US is all the greater for it and we will all be the better for it."