Singapore stocks: STI resumes Wednesday afternoon at 3.192.26, up 0.3% on day

SINGAPORE shares trended upward after Tuesday's losses, buoyed by relief over Washington's temporary relaxation of curbs against China's Huawei Technologies. That said, a sense of caution remains among investors here and in the region over ongoing trade frictions between the US and China.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was trading at 3.192.26, up 9.00 points or 0.3 per cent, as at 1.04pm on Wednesday.

"Positive developments in the form of a 90-day relief for certain US companies supplying Huawei was seen aiding sentiment for a market holding a binomial view towards trade tensions at present," IG market strategist Pan Jingyi observed.

Shortly after the afternoon session commenced, volume on the Singapore bourse clocked in at 503 million securities traded and total turnover came in at S$406.7 million.

Across the market, advancers outpaced decliners 151 to 129. Meanwhile, the benchmark index had 14 of the STI's 30 components trading in the red.

Among them, Genting Singapore was the benchmark index's most traded stock, with 22.8 million shares changing hands. The casino operator was trading one Singapore cent or 1.1 per cent lower at 87 cents.

The local banks were mixed. DBS Group Holdings was S$0.10 or 0.4 per cent lower at S$25.64 and United Overseas Bank dipped S$0.14 or 0.6 per cent to trade at S$24.69. Meanwhile, OCBC Bank was flat at S$11.09.

Tech counters, which were sold off on Tuesday on worries of the disruptive impact Huawei's ban would have on global technology supply chains, were trading higher.

AEM Holdings shares were trading one cent or 1.1 per cent up at S$0.94. Elsewhere, Hi-P International was one Singapore cent or 0.8 per cent up at S$1.25 and Venture Corp gained S$0.11 or 0.7 per cent to S$15.48.

Regional markets mostly posted modest gains with Australia, Malaysia and South Korea each up by 0.1 per cent, and Hong Kong advanced 0.3 per cent. Meanwhile, China and Japan were flat.