SINGAPORE stocks continued where their morning gains left off as trading resumed on Wednesday afternoon, tracking other Asian equities that were also in the green.

The Straits Times Index advanced 0.52 per cent or 17.33 points on the day to 3,346.79 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 179 to 127, after 629.7 million securities worth S$449.8 million changed hands.

Some of the bourse's smaller stocks were the most heavily traded by volume. Asian Pay Television Trust advanced S$0.019 or 10.9 per cent to S$0.193 with 51 million shares traded, while FJ Benjamin gained S$0.006 or 16.7 per cent to S$0.042 with 19.5 million shares traded.

Cordlife also made an appearance on the most traded list, gaining S$0.07 or 13.6 per cent to S$0.585 with 17.3 million shares changing hands.

Singtel remained one of the most active index stocks, trading up S$0.04 or 1.2 per cent to S$3.50.

The three local banks continued to advance on Wednesday, with DBS up S$0.12 or 0.5 per cent to S$25.44, UOB rising S$0.31 or 1.2 per cent to S$26.53, and OCBC gaining S$0.09 or 0.8 per cent to S$11.49.

Asian markets mostly rose on Wednesday after two days of losses with investors focusing on a US congressional testimony by Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell.

Other Asian markets were mostly up with Hong Kong up 0.4 per cent, Sydney rising 0.6 per cent, and Seoul rising 0.4 per cent.

Wellington jumped 0.6 per cent, Taipei gained 0.5 per cent, while Manila and Jakarta were also up.

Shanghai added 0.1 per cent, but struggled for traction after data showed June factory prices were unchanged from a year ago and fell from the previous month, hit by the US trade war.

Tokyo lagged behind its Asian counterparts, ending the morning slightly lower.