Singapore shares open higher on Monday; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares began Monday (Sep 23) trading in positive territory, despite last week’s losses in global markets. 

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 0.1 per cent or 4.79 points to 3,629.55. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 66 to 45 after 36.64 million securities worth S$66.22 million changed hands.  

Singapore Post was the most actively traded counter by volume. The counter was trading up by 1 per cent or S$0.005 at S$0.485, with 5.1 million shares changing hands. 

Other actively traded counters included mainboard-listed palm oil company Golden Agri-Resources, which was trading flat at S$0.275. Enterprise technology company Silverlake Axis also traded flat at S$0.375. 

Banking stocks were trading mixed at the open. OCBC slipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$15.43. DBS climbed 0.3 per cent or S$0.12 to S$39.12 and UOB rose 0.5 per cent or S$0.16 to S$33.10. 

Wall Street stocks closed nearly flat on Friday (Sep 20) as investors paused buying after the prior session’s strong rally driven by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.1 per cent or 38.17 points to 42,063.36, as Nike’s gains helped nudge it to a record. The S&P 500 fell 0.2 per cent or 11.09 points to 5,702.55 and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.4 per cent or 65.66 points to 17,948.32.

Shares in Europe slipped after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut sparked a rally in the previous session. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended 1.4 per cent or 7.41 points lower at 514.26, despite recording a second straight week of gains.