Singapore shares open almost flat on Monday; STI dips 0.04%

SINGAPORE shares began Monday (Oct 21) trading nearly flat despite weekend gains in markets abroad.

As at 9.02 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) dipped 0.04 per cent or 1.59 points to 3,638.6. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 66 to 44 after 40.1 million securities worth S$43.3 million changed hands.

Offshore and marine specialist Seatrium was the most actively traded counter by volume. It was trading up 3 per cent or S$0.06 at S$2.04 with six million securities changing hands.

Other actively traded counters included Chinese agritech company Zixin and investment holding company CapAllianz, which both traded flat at S$0.027 and S$0.001, respectively.

Banking stocks were trading mixed at open. DBS was down by 0.4 per cent or S$0.16 at S$39.54, while OCBC rose 0.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$15.45 and UOB traded flat at S$32.60.

Wall Street stocks ended higher on Friday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 climbed to new all-time highs on strong earnings results.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.1 per cent to 43,275.91, while the broad-based S&P 500 closed up 0.4 per cent at 5,864.67 and the tech-rich Nasdaq ended 0.6 per cent higher at 18,489.55.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 ended higher by 0.2 per cent at 524.99 on the back of tech stocks’ strong recovery after a bumpy week. The European Central Bank’s rate cut and corporate earnings helped the index score a second straight week of gains.