SINGAPORE stocks started trading in positive territory on Monday (Aug 19), a day after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong gave his first National Day Rally speech.
As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) opened 1.1 per cent or 37.16 points higher at 3,352.89. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 58 to 32 after 16 million securities worth S$41.6 million changed hands.
One of the most actively traded counters by volume was Yoma Strategic, which dropped 8.9 per cent to S$0.092, with 3.1 million shares changing hands.
Other heavily traded securities included Singtel, which gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.99. Shares of resort and casino operator Genting Singapore declined 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.82.
Banking stocks traded higher at the open. DBS increased 1.5 per cent or S$0.54 to S$36.10. UOB increased 0.4 per cent or S$0.13 to S$30.56. OCBC was up 0.6 per cent or S$0.09 at S$14.40.
Wall Street stocks ended higher on Friday as gold prices hit a record high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.2 per cent at 40,659.76, while the broad-based S&P 500 finished 0.2 per cent higher at 5,554.25.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite ended the day 0.2 per cent higher at 17,631.72.
In Europe, shares ended the week with healthy gains as upbeat risk sentiment prevailed globally following a slew of US data. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.3 per cent on the day to end at 511.45.
