Singapore stocks rise at Friday's open; STI up 0.6%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) gained 0.6 per cent or 17.23 points to 3,127.04 as at 9.01am. Gainers outnumbered losers 111 to 23, with 46.1 million securities worth S$57.1 million changing hands.

Sembcorp Marine was the second-most actively traded counter by volume, with 3.3 million shares worth S$630,000 traded within the first minute of market open. Its shares were up 0.5 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent at 18.9 cents.

Index stock Suntec Reit also saw brisk trading, with 2.1 million units worth S$3 million changing hands. Its units gained 0.7 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.42. The Reit's flagship property in Singapore, Suntec City, announced on Thursday that it was stepping up its health and safety measures, and also introducing additional support for its mall tenants through Phase 2 (Heightened Alert).

Mapletree Industrial Trust, another index stock, was also actively traded, with 1.7 million units worth S$4.8 million traded as at 9.01am. The counter slipped 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.73. This comes after its manager announced on Friday its private placement of 190.3 million new units was around 3.1 times covered.

The trio of local banks were all higher in early trade. DBS saw the greatest rise at 1 per cent or S$0.28 to S$29.90, UOB gained 0.7 per cent or S$0.17 to S$25.64, while OCBC advanced 0.6 per cent or S$0.07 to S$11.98 as at 9.01am.

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Over on Wall Street, stocks rallied to close higher on Thursday after a three-day slide which followed concerns over shifting monetary policy and inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.6 per cent at 34,082.90, the broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.1 per cent to 4,159.13, while the tech-rich Nasdaq surged 1.8 per cent to 13,535.09.

After one of the worst sell-offs this year, European stocks rose on Thursday as strong earnings and merger talks in the chip sector offset worries about inflation. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index advanced 1.3 per cent after suffering a 1.5 per cent loss in the previous session, led by tech stocks.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, tracking Wall Street gains. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.5 per cent or 152.57 points at 28,250.82 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.2 per cent or 4.02 points to 1,899.94.