Singapore stocks: STI resumes Tuesday afternoon at 3,250.67, up 0.44% on day

SINGAPORE stocks built on their morning advance as trading resumed on Tuesday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index increasing 0.44 per cent or 14.27 points on the day to 3,250.67 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 200 to 136, after 770.3 million securities worth about S$547.8 million changed hands.

Among the most active securities, Rex International advanced S$0.005 or 4.3 per cent to S$0.121 with 61.5 million shares traded. The price increase comes after its unit Masirah Oil said on Tuesday morning it had awarded a drilling rig contract to Foresight Offshore Drilling to drill one appraisal well in Oman.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was up S$0.05 or 5.2 per cent to S$1.01 with 45.7 million shares changing hands.

Singtel remained one of the most active index stocks, trading up S$0.03 or 0.9 per cent to S$3.33.

Among financials, DBS was up S$0.15 or 0.6 per cent to S$26.28 and UOB advanced S$0.07 or 0.3 per cent to S$26.75. OCBC slipped S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$11.05 after announcing a 6 per cent decline for its third quarter 2019 net profit.

Asian markets were mixed as investors took a step back after recent rallies, awaiting the next developments in the China-US trade talks.

Wall Street had provided a perfect lead - with all three main indices closing at record highs on optimism the economic superpowers are close to agreeing the first part of a wider tariffs pact.

Tokyo led gainers as it reopened after a long weekend to play catch-up with Monday's rally.

The Nikkei ended the morning more than 1 per cent higher, Sydney added 0.2 per cent and Taipei was 0.4 per cent up.

But Hong Kong and Shanghai each slipped, while Seoul and Wellington were barely moved.