Singapore stocks joined global stock rally on Thursday following all-time highs for the U.S. stocks after minutes showed caution at the Federal Reserve over the timing of future rate hike.
Asian stocks were near a decade high on Thursday, riding the bull run in global equity markets, while the dollar sagged.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose to its highest since December 2007 and was last up 0.2 percent.
Fed officials debated hard last month over whether forces holding inflation down were persistent or temporary, with several policy makers looking for stronger evidence of price gains before supporting a third interest-rate increase this year.
At 0400 GMT, the Straits Times Index rose 0.68 percent or 22 points to 3,301. It ended 0.26 percent lower on Wednesday, taking the year-to-date performance to about 14 percent.
United Overseas Bank added 1.2 percent, Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp gained 1 percent and DBS Group Holdings rose 0.8 percent.
Shares in Singapore Press Holdings rose as much as 2.2 percent to S$2.75 after reporting higher full-year profit and accelerated job cuts to support its core media business.
United Overseas Bank said it would price its US$650 million of 3.875 percent perpetual capital securities at an initial spread of 179.4 basis points above the five-year U.S. dollar swap rate.
SIIC Environment, which installs industrial and municipal wastewater treatment systems, rose about 1 percent after it got approval from local authorities for commercial operations in the expansion and upgrading of a water plant in Wuhan, China.
About 1.3 billion shares worth S$500 million changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 211 to 124.
