SINGAPORE - A better-than-expected set of economic numbers from China helped the local stock market to stay in the black for a second straight day.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) added 26.3 points or 0.8 per cent to 3,334.02 on Tuesday.

Despite a lack of overnight guidance from markets in the United States due to the Martin Luther King holiday, shares here opened in positive territory and never dipped in the red.

Investors were rewarded for taking buying in as markets got a boost with China reporting in the morning that its full-year growth for 2014 stood at 7.4 per cent.

Even though it fell below the government's target of 7.5 per cent and was the slowest growth since 1990, it was above consensus estimates of a 7.3 per cent expansion.

Regional bourses joined in the rally as Shanghai added 1.8 per cent, Hong Kong gained 0.9 per cent, Tokyo rose 2.1 per cent and Seoul was up 0.8 per cent.