Singapore stocks: STI resumes Friday afternoon up 0.12% on day

SINGAPORE stocks entered more positive territory as trading resumed on Friday afternoon, after barely moving earlier in the day. The Straits Times Index was up 0.12 per cent or 3.80 points on the day to 3,235.65 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 186 to 155, after 548.2 million securities worth S$566.5 million changed hands.

Among the most active securities, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was up S$0.03 or 3.1 per cent to S$1.00 after 49.8 million shares were traded.

Heavily traded Singtel dropped S$0.10 or 3 per cent to S$3.20 after posting a second-quarter net loss of S$668 million for the three months to Sept 30 due to a key associate's provision for sums claimed by the Indian government.

China Star Food was up S$0.003 or 10.7 per cent to S$0.031 after 20 million shares changed hands.

The three local banks were all in the green, with DBS trading cum dividend, up S$0.09 or 0.3 per cent to S$26.65, UOB increasing S$0.12 or 0.5 per cent to S$26.69, and OCBC gaining S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent to S$11.17.

Other Asian markets rose as trade hopes were given a boost by Donald Trump's economic aide saying "enormous progress" had been made in talks with China, easing recent concerns that they were stumbling.

Tokyo went into the break 0.7 per cent higher, Sydney jumped 0.8 per cent and Seoul climbed 1 per cent. Taipei, Wellington and Jakarta also posted healthy gains. Shanghai was up 0.4 per cent, boosted by the central bank's decision to pump US$29 billion into the financial system.

Hong Kong added 0.4 per cent in early trade, having shed almost 5 per cent over the previous four days as the city was wracked by violent protests, with police saying the rule of law was on "the brink of total collapse".