Singapore stocks: STI resumes Tuesday afternoon up 0.7% on day

SINGAPORE equities resumed trading on Tuesday afternoon building on its early gains, with the Straits Times Index (STI) advancing 23.27 points or 0.7 per cent to 3,165.47 as at 1.03pm.

The local market is on track for another "turnaround Tuesday" as investors turned to bargain buying after the STI's 1.2 per cent slide on Monday. That said, uncertainty surrounding the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak remains, especially after cases in South Korea ballooned in the past week along with the emergence of a cluster in Italy.

One trader told The Business Times: "I have opened a number of positions as valuations are friendlier following recent price weakness but I cannot ignore the potential of a global pandemic, so my plays are mostly day trades."

Shortly after the afternoon session began, volume traded on the Singapore bourse clocked in at 808.1 million securities with a total turnover of S$646.3 million. Both volume and turnover are on track to beat their respective 2019 intraday averages.

Across the market, advancers outpaced decliners 194 to 162. The bluechip index had two of the 30 counters trading in the red.

Genting Singapore was the STI's most active counter, dipping 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.6 per cent to 86.5 cents on 23.3 million shares changing hands.

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The local banks were up. DBS shares added S$0.09 or 0.4 per cent to S$24.94, OCBC Bank gained S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent to S$11 and United Overseas Bank was trading at S$25.40, climbing S$0.12 or 0.5 per cent as at 1.03pm on Tuesday.

Among companies in the second line, Food Empire Holdings edged down S$0.01 or 1.3 per cent to S$0.75. The maker of instant coffee and snacks posted an 83.6 per cent jump in Q4 net profit to about US$5 million on Monday after market close.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, equity benchmarks in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan were up.

Returning from a holiday on Monday, Japan's Nikkei 225 was the region's main laggard. Australia, hurt by falling commodity prices, was also lower.