Singapore share prices tumbled on Wednesday, falling 2.89 percent to hit a four-month low in the wake of Wall Street's overnight losses on fears the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at a faster pace than expected, dealers said. The Straits Times Index lost 66.03 points to 2,218.13.
Volume traded totalled 1.3 billion shares worth 1.4 billion Singapore dollars (830 million US), up from 1.0 billion shares worth 831 million dollars on Tuesday.
There were 85 rising issues, 580 losers and 449 issues were even.
Fears of rising US interest rates triggered a sell-off especially in property and technology stocks after recent gains, dealers said.
"Selling in property and technology stocks dragged the market lower," a dealer with a local brokerage said.
DBS Vickers Securities said further weakness in the market was expected with the Straits Times index to fall to 2,100 points before rallying to 2,350 points by the end of the year.
Technology stocks were also affected by Intel's lower-than-expected third quarter earnings, dealers said.
Contract chip maker Chartered Semiconductor dropped 4.5 cents to 95 cents, UTAC eased 3.5 cents to 58.5 cents and STATS ChipPAC was off six cents at 90 cents.
Other technology stocks also fell, with Venture Corp down 60 cents at 12.70 and Creative Technology 30 cents lower at 12.30.
Among blue chips, ST Engineering shed five cents to 2.47, Singapore Airlines was off 20 cents at 11.20, Singapore Telecommunications declined seven cents to 2.37 and Singapore Press Holdings down 10 cents to 4.46.
For the banks, DBS slipped 50 cents to 15.70, United Overseas Bank eased 40 cents to 3.70 and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp dropped 25 cents to 6.20.
Property stocks also posted losses with City Developments dropping 20 cents to 8.45, CapitaLand down 14 cents to 3.12 and Keppel Land gave up 26 cents to 3.66.