Singapore shares rise at Friday’s open; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares began Friday (Feb 7) trading in positive territory as markets abroad mostly closed higher.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.1 per cent or 5.47 points at 3,835.89. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 64 to 29, with 29.7 million securities worth S$64.3 million having changed hands.

CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust was the most actively traded counter by volume. It was trading up 1 per cent or S$0.02 at S$1.99, with 2.5 million securities transacted.

Other actively traded counters included Singtel, which was trading flat at S$3.23, and fruit-juice manufacturer Zhongxin Fruit, which rose 2 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.05.

Local banking stocks were mixed at open. DBS gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.15 to S$44.47. OCBC declined 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$17.24, and UOB fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.11 to S$37.07.

Wall Street stocks closed mostly higher on Thursday, after a round of mixed corporate earnings amid companies’ wait for the January US employment report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3 per cent to 44,747.63, while the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.4 per cent to 6,083.57; the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.5 per cent to 19,791.99.

Shares in Europe ended Thursday at an all-time high, led by mining companies after positive earnings reports. The pan-European Stoxx 600 Index closed up 1.2 per cent at 544.84 points.

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