SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Overnight Wall Street indexes rallied and gave the Straits Times Index (STI) and key regional barometers reasons to be bullish on Tuesday.

The STI rose 25.19 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 3,199.01.

Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said Wall Street's three indexes all closed higher, shrugging off weaker United States industrial production data and a flattening US yield curve, which indicated shorter-term inflationary pressures will continue rising.

He said the fact that the flattening is occurring at the shorter end of the yield curve and not the 10- to 30-year tenors has had markets assuming that the Federal Reserve has the longer-term inflation outlook under control.

Azeus Systems saw its share price post gains of 10.9 per cent to $8.35. Despite being under its 52-week high of $10.06 - a level hit last week - the counter has skyrocketed from a low of $1.30 a year ago and made remarkable gains in recent months.

Azeus is an IT consultancy services provider that helps companies hold virtual shareholders' meetings with "live" Q&A and "live" electronic voting functions.

Its major shareholder Lee Wan Lik had been approached by a third-party investor to explore an investment in Azeus, the company said in response to Singapore Exchange's query last week on "unusual price movements" in the counter. Mr Lee said he has not entered into any specific discussions or signed any binding investment agreement with the third-party investor.

With the initial euphoria over the expanded quarantine-free travel scheme for travellers vaccinated against Covid-19 having subsided, national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) shares have been unable to soar higher. It was down 0.54 per cent to $5.48.

Analysts, while sanguine over the prospects for air travel, have recommended "sell" or "hold" for the airline, with some citing SIA's "rich valuations".

Decliners trailed gainers 216 to 286 on the broader market, with a turnover of 1.83 billion securities worth $1.25 billion.