Singapore shares rise at Tuesday's open ahead of Budget; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks opened higher on Tuesday ahead of the Budget to be delivered later in the day.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who is also the finance minister, said on Monday that the Republic's fiscal situation will be "tight" for several years. He warned in a Facebook post that Singapore will end FY2020 with "a record budget deficit".

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index (STI) inched up 0.2 per cent or 6.76 points to 2,938.28 as at 9.05am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 97 to 35, after 159.4 million securities worth S$51.2 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Thomson Medical, which held steady at 8.9 Singapore cents, with 35.4 million shares changing hands as at 9.05am.

Other heavily traded securities included Sembcorp Marine, which rose 1.3 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 15.7 cents, with 5.6 million shares traded, as well as Rex International, which was up 1.1 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 18.5 cents, with 4.9 million shares traded.

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ComfortDelGro lost 0.6 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.57 as at 9.05am. The transport operator's net profit for the year ended Dec 31, 2020 plunged nearly 77 per cent year on year to S$61.8 million as the pandemic brought activity to a halt, it said on Monday.

Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. As at 9.07am, DBS was trading up 0.6 per cent or S$0.15 at S$26.03, UOB rose 0.3 per cent or S$0.08 to S$24.04, while OCBC advanced 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$10.63.

Other active index counters included Singtel, which was up 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.42, as well as Manulife US Reit, which dropped 2.1 per cent or 1.5 US cents to 70.5 cents.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday as Japan prepares to start vaccinations against Covid-19. The Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5 per cent to 30,229.74 in early trade, while the Topix index gained 0.4 per cent to 1,961.15.

In Europe, shares ended near a one-year high on Monday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 1.3 per cent to its highest since late February 2020, with Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Anglo American bolstering the index as copper prices leapt to a more than eight-year high.

US financial markets were closed on Monday in observance of Presidents Day.