Singapore stocks open higher on Thursday; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE shares opened slightly higher on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) gaining 0.2 per cent or 6.29 points to 3,224.46 as at 9.03 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 86 to 48, with 116.2 million securities worth S$65 million changing hands.

The most actively traded counter by volume was Shen Yao A78 : A78 0%, which saw 14 million of its shares worth S$40,000 traded. The counter was flat at S$0.003.

Hatten Land PH0 : PH0 0% also saw brisk trading, with 10.1 million shares worth S$600,000 changing hands. Its shares were up S$0.001 or 1.7 per cent at S$0.061.

The Catalist-listed property developer on Wednesday (Oct 27) posted a net loss of RM94 million (S$30.5 million) for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2021, down 53.1 per cent from a net loss of RM200.3 million in Q4 FY2020. For the full year, net loss narrowed by 25.2 per cent to RM171.9 million, from RM229.7 million in the year-ago period.

Among index stocks, Ascendas Reit A17U and CapitaLand Investment 9CI : 9CI 0% were also actively traded.

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Ascendas Reit had 539,300 units worth S$1.7 million traded, and was down S$0.01 or 0.3 per cent at S$3.08. CapitaLand Investment saw 393,700 shares worth S$1.4 million changing hands, with the counter up S$0.01 or 0.3 per cent at S$3.44.

The trio of local banks were mixed in early trade. DBS D05 gained S$0.26 or 0.8 per cent to S$32.02, UOB U11 rose S$0.11 or 0.4 per cent to S$26.96, but OCBC O39 : O39 0% fell S$0.01 or 0.1 per cent to S$11.97.

In the US, the Nasdaq pared losses to end flat on Wednesday (Oct 27), boosted by gains in Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet following their quarterly results, but a drop in oil prices and a pullback in Treasury yields weighed on cyclical sectors and pulled the S&P 500 lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 266.19 points or 0.7 per cent to 35,490.69, the S&P 500 lost 23.11 points or 0.5 per cent to 4,551.68, while the Nasdaq Composite added just 0.12 point to 15,235.84.

Meanwhile, European stocks slipped from near-record highs on Wednesday, with miners leading losses after concerns over China hit metal prices, while mixed corporate earnings reports and an upcoming central bank meeting kept investors on edge.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.4 per cent lower at 474.04, after coming close to a record high on Tuesday (Oct 26).

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday (Oct 28), extending declines as investors looked towards a monetary policy decision from the Bank of Japan later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 per cent or 243.44 points to 28,854.80, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.6 per cent or 12.85 points to 2,000.96.