Singapore shares open higher on Wednesday; STI up 0.8%

SINGAPORE stocks rose on Wednesday morning, tracking US gains overnight. The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) moved up by 0.8 per cent or 20.44 points to 2,610.35 as at 9.11am.

Gainer outnumbered losers 146 to 45, after 180.4 million securities worth S$90.8 million changed hands.

Among the most active counters by volume was Thai Beverage Public Co, which lost one Singapore cent or 1.5 per cent to 68.5 cents, with 5.4 million shares changing hands as at 9.13am.

Other heavily traded securities included Medtecs International, which fell 4 per cent or 1.5 Singapore cents to 39.5 cents, with 5.1 million shares traded.

The trio of local banks all rose in early trade. DBS gained 1.6 per cent or S$0.33 to S$21.13, OCBC rose 1 per cent or S$0.09 to S$9.09, and UOB gained 0.7 per cent or S$0.14 to S$20.37.

Other active index counters included the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which advanced by 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$8.36. SGX on Wednesday announced it will introduce a futures contract on the FTSE Taiwan RIC Capped Index, enabling investors to gain exposure to a broad representation of large and mid-cap Taiwan stocks.

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Singapore Telecommunications rose 1.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.49, while Singapore Airlines gained 1.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$3.77.

In the US, Wall Street stocks capped an historically strong quarter on a positive note on Tuesday, again ending decisively higher and shrugging off a resurgence in US coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, European stocks rose marginally on Tuesday to close out their best quarter since March 2015 as investors bet that the worst economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis had passed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks likewise opened higher on Wednesday, propped up by Wall Street gains as investors largely shrugged off a weak business confidence survey from Japan.