Singapore shares open higher on Wednesday; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Wednesday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) gaining 0.2 per cent or 3.91 points to 2,475.52 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 69 to 57, after 78.2 million securities worth S$166 million changed hands.

Among the most active counters by volume was Singapore Telecommunications, which lost 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.09, with 8.3 million shares traded.

Also heavily traded were Sembcorp Marine, which was trading flat at 14.4 Singapore cents with about 4.5 million shares changing hands, and Genting Singapore, which was trading flat at 67.5 cents, with about four million shares traded.

The three banks all rose in early trade. DBS gained 0.5 per cent or S$0.10 to S$20.08. The lender on Tuesday announced it will redeem all of its S$800 million outstanding preference shares on Nov 23. Separately, it said it will integrate its rewards app, DBS Lifestyle, into the DBS PayLah! app over the next few months.

OCBC rose 1 per cent or S$0.09 to S$8.54, while UOB slipped 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$19.16.

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Other active index counters include Keppel Corporation, which advanced 3.5 per cent or S$0.15 to S$4.45. Keppel chief executive officer Loh Chin Hua said the company has identified assets valued at S$17.5 billion that can be "monetised over time and channelled towards growth initiatives".

The Singapore Exchange gained 0.6 per cent or S$0.05 to S$9.18. Wilmar International lost 0.2 per cent or S$0.01 to S$4.41.

In the US, Wall Street stocks dipped on Tuesday after two positive sessions, as investors digested the latest effort to try to jumpstart Washington stimulus talks amid caution ahead of the first presidential debate.

European stocks slipped on Tuesday after solid gains in the previous session, with banks, energy and insurance sectors sliding as coronavirus cases mounted globally.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday tracking falls on Wall Street as investors awaited the first US presidential debate later in the morning for fresh trading cues.