Singapore shares closed lower on Friday, despite a surge in manufacturing output activity.

The Straits Times Index, a key benchmark for the Singapore Exchange, edged down 0.32% to close at 3,593.41.

In economic news, Singapore's manufacturing output experienced an increase of 9.8% year-on-year in September. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output rose by 4.5%, according to data released by EDB Singapore.

In company news, shares of Mapletree PanAsia Com Tr were down nearly 5% after the trust's distribution per unit fell almost 12% year over year in the quarter ended Sept. 30 to SG$0.0198.

Livingstone closed 4% lower after it allotted and issued 1,034,078 shares.

On the other hand, 5E Resources surged over 17% after the company entered into a scheme of arrangement with GreenEdge for the proposed acquisition of the entire stake in the company.

SATS rose 7.2%, SingPost rose 0.9%, YZJ Shipbldg rose 0.8%; Seatrium fell 1%, OCBC fell 0.5%, DBS fell 0.4%.