Singapore shares closed 0.76 percent higher on Thursday, as investors awaited more stimulus announcements from U.S. President-elect Joe Biden later in the day.

U.S. markets rose modestly on Wednesday ahead of Biden's fiscal aid announcement later Thursday and corporate earning season that set to kick off in earnest on Friday. Any report of a swift recovery in profits would validate optimism on an economic rebound amid vaccine rollout and government stimulus.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices fell in Asia after the Energy Information Administration report showed U.S. crude inventories fell last week for the fifth drop in a row, and also builds across gasoline and distillate stockpiles.

Maybank-Kim Eng Retail Research said, "Technically, the Straits Times Index is overbought and could pull back to near term support at 2,920 before heading for the next objective at 3,086 points."

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 22.49 points to 3000 points. The trading volume was 2.52 billion shares worth 1.27 billion Singapore dollars. Advancers outnumbered decliners 276 to 203.

Aspen fell 1.96 percent to 25 Singapore cents. It secured a sales and distribution agreement with a third-party distributor for the offtake of its entire 2021 production or an estimated one billion pieces of natural rubber medical-grade examination gloves worth 100 million U.S. dollars. The deal is initially for 2021 production and renewable thereafter subject to mutual consent. The gloves will be distributed to the European Union and U.S. markets. The next phase of the manufacturing facility will be expedited with the addition of 18 lines in 2021 and 2022.

Among top gainers, Jardine Strategic rose 0.77 percent to 26.25 U.S. dollars, while Jardine Matheson became one of the top losers by falling 0.27 percent to 56.2 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 1.33 Singapore dollars)