Singapore stocks rise at Monday's open; STI up 0.4%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Monday, despite Wall Street putting in a mixed performance on Friday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) gained 0.4 per cent or 13.72 points to 3,131.61 as at 9.02am. Gainers outnumbered losers 104 to 29, with 36.9 million securities worth S$47.4 million changing hands.

Enviro-Hub was the most actively traded counter by volume with 7.5 million shares worth S$0.69 million traded within the first two minutes of market open. Its shares were at 9.4 Singapore cents, up 10.6 per cent or 0.9 cent from when they last traded on Tuesday. This follows the group's announcement that it is acquiring the remaining 75 per cent stake in its associate company Pastel Gloves Sdn Bhd for S$46.8 million such that the company will become a fully-owned subsidiary of Enviro-Hub.

Index stock Genting Singapore also saw brisk trading, with 2.3 million shares worth S$1.79 million changing hands. Its shares gained 1.3 per cent or one Singapore cent to 80 cents.

Mapletree Industrial Trust, another index stock, was also actively traded, with 1.4 million units worth S$4.1 million traded as at 9.02am. The counter gained 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.82.

The trio of local banks were all higher in early trade. OCBC saw the greatest rise at 0.9 per cent or S$0.11 to S$12.04, DBS rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.17 to S$30, while UOB gained 0.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$25.66 as at 9.02am.

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Over on Wall Street, stocks closed mixed on Friday after a volatile week, where a three-day slide was followed by a session of strong gains on Thursday. The week was marked by positive global growth expectations and sustained fears of inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.4 per cent at 34,207.84, the broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.1 per cent to 4,155.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 0.5 per cent to 13,470.99.

European stocks rose on Friday, as investors were cautiously optimistic about accelerating business growth in the eurozone mitigating inflation worries. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index advanced 0.6 per cent, ending the week with a small gain.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday as investors weighed the extension of a pandemic state of emergency in several Japanese regions and monitored bitcoin price movements. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.3 per cent or 89.46 points at 28,407.29 in early trade, while the broader Topix index put on 0.4 per cent or 8.37 points to 1,913.06.