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

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Thursday (Dec 23), after stocks rallied on Wall Street following strong US consumer data.

The Straits Times Index (STI) edged up 0.4 per cent or 13.56 points to 3,101.07 as at 9.01 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 81 to 26 after 31.4 million securities worth S$39.5 million changed hands.

Property developer Hatten Land PH0 was one of the top gainers of the morning in terms of volume, rising S$0.002 or 4.4 per cent to S$0.047 after 1.2 million shares were traded.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) T39 was also actively traded at open, dropping S$0.01 or 0.4 per cent to S$2.33 after 762,700 shares changed hands. This comes after the Securities Industry Council threw out a clause in Keppel Corp's offer that restricts SPH from holding a scheme meeting for a rival offer within 8 weeks from the Keppel scheme meeting - the latest development in a keen takeover battle for SPH by Keppel and Cuscaden Peak, a consortium comprising Hotel Properties, businessman Ong Beng Seng, and 2 Temasek-linked entities, CLA and Mapletree.

Index counter Singtel Z74 was among the most actively traded securities on Thursday morning, with 879,100 shares traded. The counter rose S$0.02 or 0.9 per cent to S$2.34.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign Up

Sign Up

The trio of local banks were a sea of green at the open. DBS D05 was up S$0.15 or 0.5 per cent to S$32.53, UOB U11 rose S$0.06 or 0.2 per cent to trade at S$26.79, while OCBC O39 climbed S$0.10 or 0.9 per cent to S$11.36 as at 9.01 am.

In the US, Wall Street stocks rose on Wednesday (Dec 22) for a second straight session, joining European bourses in a pre-holiday rally following strong US consumer data.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1 per cent to 4,696.56, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.2 per cent to 15,521.89.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 per cent to 35,753.89.

Meanwhile, European shares ended on Wednesday at near 1-week highs, boosted by tech stocks, even as investors worried about the outlook for global recovery amid rising cases from the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.9 per cent to 478.36, which was also its best day in two weeks.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors took heart from gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.5 per cent or 143.11 points at 28,705.32 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.5 per cent or 9.95 points to 1,981.46.