Singapore stocks: STI resumes Monday afternoon at 3,132, up 0.54% on day

SINGAPORE stocks continued their recovery as trading resumed on Monday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index (STI) climbing 0.54 per cent or 16.97 points on the day to 3,132.00 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 197 to 112, after 689.9 million securities worth S$448.7 million changed hands.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding continued to see heavy trading as it pared last week's heavy losses. It was up S$0.06 or 6.1 per cent to S$1.05 after about 62.2 million shares changed hands.

Shares of gold exploration and mining firm LionGold were unchanged at S$0.001 after about 93 million shares were traded.

Oilfield equipment supplies and services company Magnus Energy was flat at S$0.001 before it initiated a trading halt during Monday's midday trading break, ahead of a pending announcement.

Among active STI index stocks, Genting Singapore traded up S$0.02 or 2.3 per cent to S$0.895.

The three local banks all gained ground, with DBS up S$0.09 or 0.4 per cent to S$24.79, OCBC gaining S$0.08 or 0.8 per cent to S$10.71, and UOB advancing S$0.05 or 0.2 per cent to S$25.09.

In Asia, markets rallied on Monday following a strong lead from Wall Street and an extra tailwind from a move by China's central bank to change the way a key interest rate benchmark is set, seen by analysts as reducing borrowing costs for companies.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Saturday unveiled key interest rate reforms to help steer borrowing costs lower for companies and support a slowing economy caught in the grip of a bruising trade war with the United States.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 1.9 per cent while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.5 per cent.

Elsewhere, Tokyo added 0.5 per cent by the break while Sydney climbed 0.8 per cent.

Seoul was up 0.5 per cent with Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta also in positive territory.