Singapore shares rise at Friday’s open, STI up 0.2% – The Business Times

SINGAPORE shares started trading in positive territory on Friday (Jan 24), tracking a rise in other global markets.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) opened 0.2 per cent, or 8.41 points higher at 3,814.98. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 61 to 25 after 36.9 million securities worth S$81.9 million changed hands.

Among the actively traded counters by volume was Singtel, which rose 1 per cent to S$3.14, with about 2.8 million shares traded.

Units of Mapletree Pan Asia dipped 0.8 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.18.

Local banking stocks were mixed in the morning. DBS dropped 0.4 per cent, or S$0.18 to S$43.63, while UOB rose 0.6 per cent, or S$0.22, to S$37.57. OCBC increased 0.6 per cent, or S$0.10 to S$17.19.

Wall street markets ended higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing up 0.9 per cent at 44,565.07. The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.5 per cent to 6,118.71, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2 per cent to 20,053.68.

European shares also closed higher on Thursday, buoyed by President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, while declines in heavyweight technology stocks tempered gains.

The pan-European-Stoxx 600 climbed 0.4 per cent to close at 530.34 points, marking its seventh consecutive day of gains.