WALL Street turned in a slightly positive showing on Wednesday, thanks to strong earnings by US corporates, but regional equity markets failed to follow suit.

Investors in Asia remain unsettled over how the Wuhan coronavirus will spread across the Chinese New Year holidays.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) was mired in the red, closing at 3,234.56 on Thursday, after giving up 19.37 points or 0.6 per cent. North-east Asian benchmarks in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea averaged a 1.5 per cent fall.