Singapore shares edge up at Wednesday's open; STI up 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks opened slightly stronger on Wednesday, following an overnight rally on Wall Street as markets see lower Covid-19 virus case counts.

Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 0.6 per cent or 15.12 points to 2,649.69 as at 9.03am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 128 to 31, after 60.2 million securities worth S$92.7 million changed hands.

The most active index counter by volume was Singtel, which rose 1.1 per cent, or S$0.03 to S$2.85 with 4.1 million shares changing hands. Other heavily traded securities included Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which rose 2.4 per cent or 0.3 US cent to 13 US cents with 3.4 million shares traded, as well as Yangzijiang Shipbuilding which was up 2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.01 with 1.9 million shares traded.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.8 per cent or S$0.16 at S$20.02. UOB slid 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$20.68, while OCBC fell 0.1 per cent, or S$0.01 to S$9.11.

Other active index counters included CapitaLand which was down 0.3 per cent or S$0.01 at S$2.97 and the Singapore Exchange, which moved up 0.5 per cent or S$0.05 to S$9.72.

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In the US, stocks closed stronger on Tuesday as the markets saw better coronavirus case counts in some hotspots, even as banking earnings pointed to economic weakness. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.4 per cent to 23,949.76. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 jumped 3.1 per cent to 2,846.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index surged 4 per cent to 8,515.74.

European shares ended higher on Tuesday, as better-than-expected data from China bolstered signs that lockdowns to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus were working. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed up 0.6 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday as a stronger yen against the dollar weighed on investor sentiment. The Nikkei 225 index was down 0.8 per cent to 19,481.32 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 0.6 per cent to 1,424.69.