The United States' strong non-farm payroll data helped to lift a few Asian indexes yesterday, with Singapore shares benefiting from the favourable sentiment.

Singapore's blue-chip barometer, the Straits Times Index (STI), closed 28.06 points, or 0.88 per cent, higher at 3,209.74 points.

Thai Beverage was up 3.97 per cent to 78.5 cents as investors were cheered by the potential listing of its brewery unit on the Singapore Exchange mainboard, after the bourse granted the brewery unit conditional eligibility to list.

Sembcorp Marine, with a trading volume of almost 500 million shares, was the most actively traded counter; its price has been climbing since announcing a £600 million (S$1.11 billion) UK wind farm contract last week. It was up three Singapore cents, or 16.2 per cent, to 21.5 cents.

PropNex and APAC Realty dipped as private home prices rose for the fourth straight quarter, fuelling speculation that the Government will implement cooling measures. PropNex closed down 2.5 cents to 94.5 cents; APAC Realty slipped one cent to 47.5 cents.

PropNex announced post-trading that it is acquiring Ovvy, a provider of a technology platform connecting service providers to consumers. The acquisition will enable the company to render further value-added services and reach out to customers.

In the broader market, a total of 2.59 billion securities worth $1.13 billion were traded. Gainers outnumbered losers 338 to 115.

Markets in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia were closed yesterday. Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.79 per cent to 30,089.25 points, and South Korea's Kospi Index advanced 0.26 per cent to 3,120.83 points.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite was marginally lower at 1,584.24 points, or 0.07 per cent down, and the Jakarta Composite Index fell 0.68 per cent to 5,970.29 points.