Singapore rose for a third consecutive session to hit a near two-year high, led by financial stocks.
Singapore's non-oil domestic exports grew faster-than-expected in June from a year earlier on continued growth in electronics shipments as well as a rebound in non-electronic products.
Asian stocks rose, with the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up about 0.4 percent.
At 0550 GMT, the Straits Times Index gained 0.18 percent or 6 points to 3,293. It ended 1.6 percent higher on Friday, taking the year-to-date gains to 14 percent.
Lenders topped the gainers list: DBS Group Holdings rose as much as 1.8 percent, while United Overseas Bank hit a more than two-year high.
Shares of furniture maker Koda jumped as much as 17 percent after the Singapore-based firm said it expects fiscal 2017 net profit to exceed that from an year earlier.
Commodity trader Noble Group rose for a fifth session, gaining nearly 2 percent after Goldilocks Investment Company raised its stake in the firm.
But Singapore Press Holdings declined about 3 percent after its third quarter net profit slumped 45.2 percent.
About 1.3 billion shares worth S$765 million changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 230 to 155.
