Singapore shares maintained their gains on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index at its highest level since January as investors continued to nibble at blue chips.

A positive close in Tokyo, couple with a paring of losses in Hong Kong provided some impetus to the local bourse's resilience.

Gains by Noble Group, City Developments, Jardine Strategic and Jardine Matheson helped lift the STI by 14.33 points to 3,157.65 as at 2pm.

Noble rose five cents or 4.3 per cent to $1.205 on 66.7 million shares changing hands.

The supply chain group said it had formed a joint venture to develop a multi-user grain handling facility at Port Kembla, Australia.

Addvalue Technologies fell by 2.4 cents or 15.3 per cent to 13.3 cents before they were halted pending an announcement.

The shares shot up by 9.4 cents on Wednesday after the company disclosed that it was selling subsidiary Addvalue Communications for $330 million to a China buyer.