SINGAPORE shares ended lower on Friday amid largely directionless trade around the region.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 10.02 points or 0.31 per cent to 3,176.35.

For the week the index inched up 3.5 points or 0.1 per cent.

The very minor weekly change was indicative of five sleepy trading sessions where action was sorely missing.

The STI would rise on one day only to give up almost all of the gains on the next, with the few traders left in the market unwilling to push stock prices in either direction.

So Monday's slight gains were cancelled out by Tuesday's dip, while the Friday fall eliminated most of the increases on Thursday.

In between, the index was flat on Wednesday.

The one consolation on Friday was that trading volumes improved somewhat.

Around 1.48 billion shares worth $1.07 billion changed hands, up from Thursday's 1.26 billion shares worth $655 million.

It was the first time this week that the value of trades crossed $1 billion, although it remained below the past year's daily average of $1.43 billion.

The most active stock was Albedo which was chased up by punters to 4.8 cents, up 0.4 cent or 9.1 per cent. About 319.5 million Albedo shares were traded.