Singapore shares higher despite weak US home sales data

Singapore shares notched up fairly robust gains on Thursday, even as much of Asia retreated on news of an unexpected drop in United States home sales.

The benchmark Straits Times Index rose 25.92 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 3,283.93.

Some 2.08 billion shares changed hands worth $1.28 billion.

There were 311 gainers, versus 126 losers.

Memstar Technology was the top active, slipping 0.7 cents to 1.9 cents on a turnover of 295.5 million shares.

Elsewhere, Tokyo dropped 0.97 per cent,Seoul lost 0.1 per cent and Shanghai fell 0.5 per cent. Hong Kong rose 0.24 per cent.

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