Investors across the region are finding their feet again after a horror few weeks, with markets yesterday building on Wednesday's gains.
"Robust corporate earnings and bargain hunting for undervalued stocks led the pullback, but the fundamental story hasn't changed a lot yet," said FXTM chief market strategist Hussein Sayed.
But concerns over United States interest rates continue to grow as trade tensions fester against the backdrop of weak global economic growth.
Mr Sayed said this "will create a tricky environment for investors on whether to focus on the macro outlook or valuations, which are becoming much more reasonable than a year ago". "What investors may be certain about is for volatility to remain elevated," he added.
IG analyst Pan Jingyi said: "The same woes that plagued markets in October persist into the new month."
Singapore shares consolidated Wednesday's gains, with the Straits Times Index (STI) up 42.05 points or 1.4 per cent to 3,060.85.
Turnover was 2.33 billion shares worth $1.23 billion, with gainers beating losers 226 to 175.
Genting Singapore was the most active, rising 1.1 per cent to 89 cents on trade of 39.1 million shares.
Jardine Cycle & Carriage was the STI's biggest gainer, adding 5.3 per cent to $31.87.
Among the financials, OCBC Bank, which reported a 12 per cent increase in third-quarter net profit to $1.25 billion yesterday morning, closed up 3.8 per cent to $11.15.
DBS added 2.1 per cent to $23.95 and United Overseas Bank put on 1.1 per cent to $24.66.
In the real estate arena, City Developments rose 3.7 per cent to $8.20.
Telcos also fared well: Singtel advanced 0.6 per cent to $3.18 while StarHub put on 5.3 per cent to $1.98.
CMC market analyst Margaret Yang said: "OCBC Bank's upbeat earnings gave the Singapore market a confidence boost. Jardine Cycle & Carriage, City Developments, StarHub and DBS were also doing the heavy lifting in the benchmark index ahead of their results next week."
Key Asian indices were largely positive, with the Hang Seng, ASX 200, Shanghai Composite and Kuala Lumpur all up.
But Tokyo's Nikkei bucked the trend, closing down 1.1 per cent. The index was weighed down by the communications sector as telcos announced they would slash fees.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Kospi ended a tad lower, snapping two sessions of gains.
