Singapore shares lower in early trading on Wall Street's extended losses

Singapore shares lower in early trading on Wall Street's extended losses

	Published : Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:12 By : Agencies Print this Story

SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Singapore share prices were lower in early dealing Monday as investors traded cautiously, made wary by the further falls on Wall Street Friday.

But the losses were limited, with bargain-hunting as investors bought select stocks made attractive by the poor performance here last week.

At 9.41 am here (0141 GMT), the Straits Times Index was down 13.27 points or 0.4 percent at 3,479.43, off a low of 3,461.40.

The volume traded was 550 million shares worth 439.2 million Singapore dollars.

Losers were beating gainers 483 to 124, with 1,016 counters unchanged.

A dealer at a local brokerage said: 'Expectations were for the index to fall after Wall Street. We started close to 30 points lower, but the index has since recovered some ground, showing the market is resilient.'

He said domestic economic indicators were still positive and that earnings reports should provide some support, although the index would still likely take its lead from other East Asian markets.

Banks were mostly lower, with DBS falling 30 cents to 22.10 dollars and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp declining five cents to 9.00 dollars. United Overseas Bank was flat at 21.70 dollars.

Oil-and-gas-related stocks were weaker, with SembCorp Marine down 15 cents at 5.55 dollars, COSCO Corp (Singapore) down five cents at 5.10 dollars and SembCorp Industries down 15 cents at 5.65 dollars.

Chartered Semiconductor extended its fall after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for the second quarter and gave a lackluster outlook. The stock was down three cents at 1.17 dollars.

But select property counters provided some support to the main index, with Keppel Land up five cents at 8.35 dollars, CapitaLand up 10 cents at 7.15 dollars and Wing Tai Holdings up eight cents at 3.60 dollars.

(1 US dollar = 1.51 Singapore dollars)

yuinmunn.szetoh@thomson.com

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