Singapore stocks rise 1.5% to 10-month high following Democrat Senate win

SINGAPORE stocks made strong gains on Thursday, mirroring regional trends, after the Democrats in the US clinched victory in the Georgia Senate runoff elections.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 1.5 per cent or 43.96 points, to close at 2,906.97, its highest close in more than 10 months.

It was a similar scene across much of the Asia-Pacific, where indices in Japan, South Korea and Australia closed in the green on Thursday, tracking overnight gains in the major indices on Wall Street, where investors largely shrugged off the unrest in Washington DC.