Singapore's stock market ended off the highs on Thursday after the annual budget failed to dispel concern about the economy.

Singapore's Straits Times Index ended 0.25 percent higher after rising 1.9 percent earlier. Big caps ended mixed, with developer CapitaLand falling 4.2 percent and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp down 0.6 percent.

Top telecoms firm Singapore Telecommunications gained 0.4 percent and top bank DBS Group inched up 0.12 percent. DBS said a S$4 billion ($2.7 billion) rights issue had been oversubscribed.

Late in the session, Singapore's government unveiled its 2009/2010 budget with a S$20.5 billion stimulus package aimed at saving jobs and helping companies in a country in its worst-ever recession.

"(The budget) will cushion the economy, but not reverse negative growth. We cannot deny that Singapore is export-oriented. We will not recover if global demand does not," said Joseph Tan, an economist at Credit Suisse.