Singapore stocks: STI resumes Monday afternoon at 3,235.15, up 0.18% on day

SINGAPORE stocks edged up as trading resumed on Monday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index advancing 0.18 per cent or 5.72 points to 3,235.15 as at 1.02pm.  

Gainers outnumbered losers 196 to 130, or about three securities up for every two down, after 563.5 million securities worth S$576.2 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Rex International Holding gained 5.5 per cent or S$0.006 to S$0.115 with 58.7 million shares traded. AIMS APAC Reit shed 0.7 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.38 with 27.3 million shares traded. Golden Agri-Resources headed up 4.8 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.22 with 23.7 million shares traded.

Active index stocks included Jardine Matheson Holdings, down 0.9 per cent or US$0.52 to US$56.38; Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust was flat at S$3.17, on a cum dividend and cum rights basis. 

Financials also opened stronger, with DBS Group Holdings up 0.9 per cent or S$0.23 to S$26.10; United Overseas Bank climbing 0.3 per cent or S$0.07 to S$26.64; and OCBC Bank rising 0.4 per cent or S$0.04 to S$11.06.

Markets around the region continued to trade stronger on US-China trade deal optimism, with MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index up 0.97 per cent while Japan's Nikkei index was down 0.33 per cent.  

The CSI300 index rose 0.8 per cent to 3,982.52 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8 per cent, to 2,980.43 points. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng index rose 1.3 per cent to 27,448.24 points, hitting a three-month high.