Singapore shares were mixed in slow trade on Friday as United Overseas Bank and other blue chips slipped, shrugging off robust economic data and strong overseas markets.
"People are definitely looking for something convincingly new. Clearly, what had been expected is an improvement in the economic data, which is what we are getting right now," said Christopher Gee, Singapore strategist at J.P. Morgan.
"The second quarter is going to continue to be quite dull," he said. The main Straits Times index eased 0.18 percent, or 3.29 points, to 1,827.11, after rising as much as 0.8 percent initially.
But gainers outpaced losers 192 to 106 overall as volume dropped to 537 million shares from 609 million on Thursday.
The index is down 3.3 percent since the start of the month but is up 3.5 percent since the beginning of the year, which is on top of the 32 percent jump posted in 2003.
"The market is waiting to see whether it has run ahead," said Kevin Scully, managing director at independent research firm Netresearch-Asia.
The sluggish market moves were in spite of Singapore's factory output expanding at a record pace over the year to February on strong global demand for drugs and electronics goods, setting the stage for the city state's strongest annual growth in four years.
Manufacturing output rose a surprising 0.2 percent over January in seasonally adjusted terms, and jumped 38.3 percent in the year to February, the highest percentage point rise since February 1993, official data showed on Friday.
Investors also seemed to have lost the initial enthusiasm generated by Wall Street's rally and the strong start for some Asian markets.
"The market is signalling the rally in New York is probably a technical rally. We are performing like Hong Kong," said Scully.
Hong Kong and Taiwan's markets were pegged back by some weak corporate results and election woes, respectively.
United Overseas Bank fell 1.5 percent to S$13.20 while banking firm DBS Group dropped 2.1 percent to S$13.80. Property company City Developments lost 2.5 percent to S$5.95.
Chartered Semi-conductor Manufacturing, which had fallen 10 percent since the beginning of the month up until Friday, added 0.6 percent to S$1.55.
The computer chipmaker said it could invest $700-$800 million to help its latest and most advanced factory break even in 2005.
Jaya Holdings moved up 1.7 percent to 90.5 Singapore cents in brisk volume of 16.4 million shares. The shipping firm rose 4.7 percent on Thursday after saying some of its shareholders had received an unsolicited offer from an unnamed external party.
Dealers told Reuters there was market talk that a Malaysian company was keen to buy a stake in the firm. The stock had surged 10 percent on Wednesday.