STI climbs 0.3 per cent on upbeat Wall Street earnings

Singapore stocks rose along with other major regional indices on Thursday (Jan 20), with the Straits Times Index (STI) climbing 0.3 per cent, or 10.88 points to 3,294.82.

DailyFX strategist Margaret Yang said that a slew of upbeat results from Wall Street could have helped lift market sentiment.

She noted that Bank of America topped analysts' estimates for profit on the back of strong asset management and banking fees. Procter & Gamble (P&G) also released better-than-expected earnings, with the company raising its outlook for sales growth in 2022.

Across the Singapore market, advancers beat decliners 251 to 210 after 1.03 billion worth S$1.03 billion changed hands.

The top performer on the STI was Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) Y92 : Y92 0% , which climbed 2.3 per cent, or S$0.015 to close at S$0.66.

Hongkong Land H78 : H78 0% was at the bottom of the table, closing down 0.9 per cent or US$0.05 at US$5.45.

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The Singapore Exchange's first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation (VTA : VTA 0%C) VTA , also began trading on Thursday. Its units were up 1 per cent, or S$0.05 from its initial public offering price of S$5.

The trio of banks were up on Thursday. UOB U11 rose 1.4 per cent or S$0.41 to close at S$30.30, while OCBC O39 climbed 0.6 per cent or S$0.07 to close at S$12.30 and DBS D05 : D05 0% closed up 0.2 per cent, or S$0.06 to close at S$35.99.

Among regional indices, Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.1 per cent while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.7 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 3.4 per cent while the Jakarta Composite Index gained 0.5 per cent and the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index shed 0.2 per cent.