Singapore share prices closed flat on Wednesday after investors took quick profits on select blue chips, in line with general weakness in regional markets, dealers said. They said unrest in the Middle East continued to weigh on sentiment. The Straits Times Index slipped 1.25 points to 2,406.31 on volume of 840.54 million shares worth 685.65 million Singapore dollars (433 million US).
Losers outpaced gainers 274 to 248 while 692 stocks were unchanged.
Weak earnings from technology firms hurt sentiment but dealers held out hope for a reversal next week. "Hopefully, we will see earnings results from blue chips like Singapore Telecommunications that are good," a dealer with a local brokerage said.
SingTel, expected to release its first quarter results next Thursday, fell 0.01 dollars to 2.51 dollars. Among other blue chips, Singapore Press Holdings was down 0.04 at 3.92 but ST Engineering added 0.02 to 2.83.
In the banks, DBS Group Holdings slipped 0.10 to 18.20, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp was flat at 6.35 and United Overseas Bank was up 0.20 at 15.50. Technology stocks were mixed with STATS ChipPAC dropping 0.02 to 0.88, Chartered Semiconductor lost 0.03 to 1.09 and Creative Technology shed 0.15 to 8.45 while UTAC rose 0.02 to 0.69.