Singapore equities recouped most of their earlier declines and closed slightly higher on Friday, led by a recovery in lenders but gains were tempered due to weak global cues.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2 percent after the European Central Bank's June meeting minutes showed the central bank is moving closer towards unwinding its monetary stimulus.
Meanwhile U.S. stocks fell overnight following a private report that showed companies added fewer workers to U.S. payrolls in June than than the prior month.
Investors will now look out for the Friday's jobs report to get a sense of the improvement in the U.S. labor market.
Back home, the Straits Times Index rose 0.08 percent or 3 points to end the week at 3,229. It ended 0.7 percent lower on Thursday, taking the year-to-date gains to 12 percent.
Among the lenders, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, DBS Group Holdings and United Overseas Bank gained between 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent.
Skincare products maker Best World International rose 3.4 percent and transport company Comfortdelgro Corp added 1.4 percent.
The laggards were chemical maker Jiutian Chemical down 9 percent after two sessions of gains while commodity trader Noble Group slumped 10 percent, a day after it closed 36 percent higher.
Shares of Disa, a maker of foundry machinery and filters, snapped three sessions of gains, down 2.9 percent.
About 1.4 billion shares worth S$885 million changed hands, with losers outnumbering gainers 264 to 135.
