Singapore stocks: STI resumes Wednesday afternoon at 3,259.23, up 0.33% on day

SINGAPORE stocks continued their advance as trading resumed on Wednesday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index up 0.33 per cent or 10.60 points on the day to 3,259.23 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 193 to 143, after 890.6 million securities worth S$614.9 million changed hands.

Catalist-listed oil firm Alpha Energy jumped S$0.006 or 17.7 per cent to S$0.04 with 140.4 million shares traded after it announced on Tuesday that its Mustang oilfield project in Alaska's North Slope has hit first oil production and sales to an oil major.

Its shares on Monday soared 0.6 Singapore cent or over 20 per cent to close at 3.4 Singapore cents. Alpha Energy then called for a trading halt on Tuesday morning, which was lifted on Tuesday evening.

Rex International was up S$0.011 or 8.8 per cent to S$0.136 after 104.6 million shares changed hands.

Hongkong Land advanced US$0.18 or 3.3 per cent to US$5.62, while semiconductor firm AEM Holdings was up S$0.13 or 8 per cent to S$1.76.

Among lenders, DBS traded up S$0.13 or 0.5 per cent to S$26.30 and UOB was up S$0.17 or 0.6 per cent to S$26.94, while OCBC was down S$0.03 or 0.3 per cent to S$11.05.

Asian investors kicked off Wednesday on a tentative note as optimism over the China-US trade talks was offset by profit-taking after a recent rally.

Another record close on Wall Street provided another positive lead for regional traders, who are keeping tabs on progress in the tariff negotiations, with expectations a deal could be signed this month.

Asian markets fluctuated in early trade. Hong Kong was down 0.3 per cent and Shanghai was marginally lower with Sydney off 0.1 per cent, though Tokyo ended the morning up 0.1 per cent, Seoul added 0.2 per cent and Taipei put on 0.1 per cent.