Singapore shares finished higher on Tuesday, snapping four days of losses as investors hunted for bargains in airline, banking and property blue chips.
The key Straits Times index rose 1.32 percent, or 22.47 points, to 1,722.80, after closing at its lowest since November 27 the previous day.
Monday's 3.1 percent fall was the index's biggest one-day drop since a 3.8 percent slide on March 31, 2003.
The rebound shadowed strength in other Asian markets such as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Concerns over looming US interest rates, China's economy and soaring crude oil prices had triggered a sell-off in previous sessions.
The index has now fallen 6.5 percent from the start of May and is down 2.4 percent since the start of the year.
"Things are a lot better today. But at the same time, we do sense a bit of cautiousness in the market," said John Yap, a director of stockbroker UOB Kay Hian.
Losers led gainers 179 to 176 as volume fell to 615 million shares from 812 million on Monday.
Singapore's flag carrier, Singapore Airlines Ltd, soared more than four percent to S$9.80 in active trade of more than six million shares, after falling 4.6 percent on Monday.
The world's second-largest airline by market value reported a surprising four-fold jump in quarterly profit on higher passenger traffic and cost cuts last week, but said the outlook was mixed.
Top Singapore bank such as DBS Group and United Overseas Bank - proxies to the Singapore economy - were mixed, after sharp falls on Monday when rising oil prices overshadowed the release of robust first-quarter economic data.
DBS gave back early gains to end unchanged at S$13.40, while UOB rose 3.23 percent to S$12.80.
Singapore revised up its forecast for 2004 economic growth on Monday after reporting an annualised 11.2 percent expansion in the economy in the first quarter that beat market expectations and the government's estimate.
The property sector index rose 1.82 percent to 387.11 points, led by top developers CapitaLand Ltd and City Developments Ltd
CityDev gained 2.56 percent to S$4.80, after shedding more than seven percent over the past two days following disappointing first quarter results. CapitaLand was up five percent at S$1.26.
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd's early gains were eroded at close, ending unchanged at S$1.35, as Standard & Poor's revised its outlook to stable from negative.