Singapore shares reversed early gains to end lower on Monday weighed down by losses in Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and Venture Corp. The Straits Times Index was down 5.81 points, or 0.29 percent, at 2,009.96. It rose as high as 2,020.95 points in early trade. In the broader market, losers led gainers 270 to 104 on a turnover of 671 million shares, against 955 million on Friday.
SingTel, which fell 2.5 percent to S$2.30, has been under selling pressure since Friday when its majority stake-holder, Temasek Holdings Ltd, said it sold S$800 million of its stocks at S$2.36 - a 3.7 percent discount to the market price.
Venture, down 5 percent at S$15, was sold after it posted a worse-than-expected 27 percent fall in quarterly profit following trading hours on Friday.
Dealers said losses in SingTel had been exacerbated by bearish comments from some analysts about the firm's outlook despite its 21 percent jump in quarterly net profit last week.
Pearly Yap, analyst at BNP Paribas Peregrine, downgraded SingTel to "perform" from "outperform" but kept her 12-month price target unchanged at S$2.64.
"Due to higher earnings base and limited revenue growth drivers, we expect SingTel's growth momentum to slow," she said in a research note.
StarHub Ltd, Singapore's third-largest mobile phone operator, ended steady at 93.5 Singapore cents, before its third quarter results, its first since listing in October after raising S$458 million in the city-state's largest initial public offering this year.
The most active stock was debutant China Sun Bio-chem Technology Group Co Ltd, a manufacturer of corn-based and modified starch products.
China Sun rose as much as 22 percent to 46.5 Singapore cents on turnover of 151 million shares, against an initial public offering price of 38 Singapore cents. It then move down to close at 39 cents.
Shares in China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp Ltd, which supplies a third of China's jet fuel, dipped amid concerns of potential losses from volatile oil prices, dealers said.
China Aviation shed as much as 4.6 percent to S$1.25, before settling at S$1.26, off 3.8 percent on the day.
Comments
Comments are closed.