RISK appetite in the Singapore bourse regained a little heft from the much-watched speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping that helped relieve global trade war fears, helping the key Straits Times Index (STI) to notch its fourth straight day of gains on Tuesday.

Following a roller-coaster ride in US stocks overnight on Monday which saw all three key indices giving up a big part of earlier gains on news of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) raid on US President Donald Trump's lawyer but still managing to close higher, the STI gained 16.42 points or 0.5 per cent to finish at 3,466.38.

Mr Xi's speech at Tuesday's Boao Forum on gradually opening up the economy was closely watched for clues on the ongoing US-China trade spat, more so because it was his first high-profile appearance since the trade tension between the world's two largest economies escalated last week after Mr Trump threatened to impose tariffs on a further US$100 billion of Chinese imports.