Singapore shares manage to cling to their modest gains, supported by an advance across Asian markets, but activity is minimal with only 415.6 million shares worth $413.6 million traded.

Gainers outnumber decliners by more than 2 to 1.

The STI is +0.4% at 3,143.85 midday but could encounter resistance at Friday's 3,167 high.

"Markets at this time are still a little slack," says SIAS Research technical analyst Edmund Seow; "we can expect a flat or a weak market all the way till the end of the year."

Among the large caps, Noble Group (N21.SG) is +2.0% at $2.08 on its US$950 million ($1.25 billion) acquisition of 2 sugar cane mills in Brazil.

China Animal Healthcare (EP4.SG), which started trading in Hong Kong today by way of introduction, is +1.3% at $0.40 on above-average volume.