STI gains for the first time this week

SINGAPORE stocks ended in the black for the first time this week on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) closing 19.62 points or 0.62 per cent higher at 3,190.73.

The index put up a strong performance throughout the day, tracking overnight gains in US markets on strong earnings performances.

There was precious little else for traders to go on, with silence on the US-China trade war and US government shutdown fronts. Democrats and US President Donald Trump remained at loggerheads over the latter's funding demands for a border wall, ahead of a planned Senate vote on competing proposals to end the shutdown.