SINGAPORE (Nov 13): Gains by SingTel and the three banks are keeping the Straits Times Index in positive territory, although action in the broader market is less subdued ahead of a slew of economic data from China due 1:30pm (0530 GMT).

The STI was 0.5% higher at 3,301.02 at 12:29pm.

SingTel rose 1.3% to $3.90 after the telco said this morning that its earnings for the September quarter increased 19.3% y-o-y to $1.04 billion on higher contributions from associates, an improvement in its consumer business in Singapore and Australia, and a one-time divestment gain.

DBS rose 0.9% to $19.43, UOB climbed 1% to $23.14 and OCBC added 0.5% to $10.19.

United Envirotech remained the top gainer in the market by value, up 5% to $1.59, after Chinese conglomerate CITIC and private-equity giant KKT offered to buy out the water treatment firm at $1.65 a share.

"We believe the emergence of CITIC as its major shareholder is likely to have a positive impact on United Envirotech in the medium to long term," said OCBC Investment Research.

Elektromotive Group jumped as much as 18.2% to 1.3 cents. The counter was highlighted in The Edge Markets' "Stocks with momentum" column. More than 17 million shares have changed hands so far, compared with 19.6 million shares for the whole of yesterday.

Among decliners, Golden Agri-Resources fell 7.8% to 47 cents after the palm oil producer surprised investors with a weak set of 3Q2014 results.

Earnings tumbled 85.6% to US$4.4 million from US$30.2 million a year earlier as higher raw material costs and lower selling prices offset a 17% rise in revenue to US$1.84 billion.

Biosensors International Group, which also reported weaker earnings for the September quarter, fell 4.7% to 60.5 cents.

"While rivals in China saw DES (drug-eluting stents) revenue growth in China, Biosensors seemed to again struggle to see proportionate volume sales," said CIMB .

"Its inability to move products to key hospital accounts is a worrying sign."