Singapore share prices fell 3.7 percent on Monday as rattled investors bailed out on growing concerns over implications stemming from the troubled US sub-prime mortgage market, dealers said. The Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 127.05 points to 3,308.99.
Volume traded totalled 2.6 billion shares worth 2.9 billion Singapore dollars (1.9 billion US) and there were 112 rising issues, 916 losers and 537 issues were even. "The key issue is whether the US sub-prime problem will spread to Asia," said DMG Partners dealing director Gabriel Yap. DBS Vickers Securities said the STI was expected to weaken further, possibly to 3,240 points but market fundamentals remained intact even if the market chalked up more losses.
"The Asian growth cycle remains intact and equity markets should resume their bull market once the current correction ends," it said. All three local banks were among the losers with DBS Group Holdings down one dollar to 20.90 dollars, United Overseas Bank was off 1.30 dollars to 19.70 dollars and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp dropped 45 cents to 8.25 dollars.
For the blue chips, Singapore Airlines fell 50 cents to 17.80 dollars, Singapore Telecommunications lost two cents to 3.42 dollars while ST Engineering eased eight cents to 3.56 dollars. Property heavyweights were also hit with City Developments down by 80 cents to 13.90 dollars, Keppel Land lost 25 cents to 7.90 dollars and CapitaLand slipped 25 cents to 7.15 dollars.