Singapore stocks rise at Friday's open; STI edges up 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares started on a positive note on Friday (Oct 15) morning to track overnight gains on Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) edged up 0.5 per cent or 17.20 points to 3,182.06 as at 9.02am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 120 to 38 after 76.5 million securities worth S$81 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume on Friday morning was AusGroup, up 3.9 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.027 as at 9.02 am.

Shares of Sembcorp Marine saw high trading volumes at the open. The index counter was up 1.3 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.081 as at 9.02am.

China Environmental Resources also saw brisk trading, rising 9.1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.012 after 4 million shares were traded as at 9.02am.

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The trio of banks opened positively on Friday. DBS was up 0.9 per cent or S$0.26 to S$30.68, UOB rose 1.2 per cent or S$0.33 to S$26.93, while OCBC jumped 0.8 per cent or S$0.10 to S$11.98.

US main indices ended higher on Thursday (Oct 14) after big banks reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Tech and healthcare were leading gainers while financials were lagging to the upside boom.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 534.75 points or 1.6 per cent to 34,912.56, the S&P 500 gained 74.46 points or 1.7 per cent to 4,438.26 and the Nasdaq Composite added 251.79 points or 1.7 per cent to 14,823.43.

Elsewhere, European stocks rose on Thursday (Oct 14), hitting the highest in more than two weeks on investors' bet that a steady economic recovery from the pandemic-induced slump will support corporate earnings despite signs of elevated inflation.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 1.2 per cent as mining and technology shares rallied, with the former hitting 3.3 per cent, their biggest gain in three months.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday (Oct 15) as investors tacked on to rallies on Wall Street with focus shifting to corporate earnings and Japan's Oct 31 general election.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.8 per cent or 230.22 points at 28,781.15 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.9 per cent or 17.75 points to 2,004.72.