Singapore shares open higher on Friday; STI rises 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks began trading higher on Friday (Dec 27) morning following a muted showing from US equities.

As at 9.02 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) rose 22.28 points or 0.6 per cent to 3,783.73. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 72 to 32 after 40.9 million securities worth S$45.9 million changed hands.

OKH Global was one of the most actively traded counters by volume. It was trading 3.5 per cent or S$0.001 higher at S$0.03 with 3.8 million securities changing hands.

Other actively traded counters included Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust which advanced 0.8 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.22, and Genting Singapore, which rose 0.7 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.765.

Banking stocks were trading up at the open. UOB was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.18 at S$36.28. DBS rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.26 to S$43.80, and OCBC climbed 0.5 per cent or S$0.08 to S$16.57.

Wall Street stocks ended little changed on Thursday as US Treasury bond yields retreated, in addition to a Mastercard SpendingPulse report noting higher holiday retail sales, with a 3.8 per cent increase in US retail spending from Nov 1 to Dec 24.

Equities veered in and out of positive territory throughout the post-Christmas trading round when several overseas bourses were closed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.1 per cent higher at 43,325.8. The broad-based S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 6,037.59, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.1 per cent to 20,020.36.