Singapore shares climb at Friday’s open; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks inched up at the opening bell on Friday (May 3) morning, mirroring overnight gains in the US market. 

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) rose 7.64 points or 0.2 per cent to 3,304.53. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 78 to 33 after 29.5 million securities worth S$40.1 million changed hands. 

Seatrium : S51 0% was the most heavily traded counter by volume. The counter shed 1.1 per cent or S$0.001 to stand at S$0.094, after 7.2 million securities were transacted. 

Other counters that were briskly exchanged included Koh Brothers Eco Engineering : 5HV 0%, which traded flat at S$0.023 after 2.2 million shares changed hands, and watch-listed Beng Kuang Marine : BEZ 0%, which rose S$0.008 or 4.4 per cent to S$0.19 after 1.7 million securities were traded.

Banking stocks were mixed during early trade. DBS : D05 0% gained 0.5 per cent or S$0.16 to S$35.71, OCBC : O39 0% dipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$14.30, and UOB : U11 0% inched up 0.3 per cent or S$0.08 to S$30.55.

Over on Wall Street, major equities were boosted on Thursday following largely upbeat earnings from tech giants in recent days. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.5 per cent to 15,840.96, and the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.9 per cent to 5,064.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.9 per cent to 38,225.66.

In Europe, shares retreated on Thursday as investor sentiment cooled amid earnings releases and the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates steady.  The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.2 per cent to close at 503.21.