Singapore shares ended lower on Thursday, led by banks and blue chips such as Venture Corp, as investors stayed cautious ahead of news on the outlook for US interest rates.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is due to speak on Wednesday about the outlook for the US economy and dealers said investors would be looking for clues on whether the Fed might raise interest rates earlier than expected.
The key Straits Times index bounced off an intra-day high of 1,860.58 to end down 0.50 percent, or 9.28 points, at 1,844.71. But the index is still up 4.5 percent since the start of the year.
"The market will continue to trade sideways but the up-coming IPOs (initial public offerings) should lend some support to it," said Samuel Wong, assistant dealing manager of institutional sales at OCBC Securities.
FibreChem Technologies, a manufacturer and seller of chemical fibre products, as well as China-based environmental solutions provider United Envirotech are slated to make their trading debuts on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
In the broader market, losers thrashed gainers 212 to 110 as share turnover shrank to about 651 million from Friday's 741 million.
"The market was spooked last week by the expectation that US interest rates would rise sooner rather then later," said Kevin Scully, managing director at independent research firm Netresearch-Asia.
"Basically because of that, people will be sidelined. They won't do anything. But in terms of the economic and other fundamentals, the market is well underpinned," he added.
Among losers were Singapore's three banks, which account for close to 40 percent of the index's weighting.
DBS Group Holdings settled flat at S$13.80 after hitting an intra-day low of S$13.70. United Overseas Bank fell 0.74 percent to S$13.50 and OCBC Bank shed 1.65 percent to S$11.90.
Contract electronics manufacturer Venture Corp also fell one percent to S$19.80.
Among top actives were shares in Total Access Communication, which provides wireless communication products and services in Thailand. The stock climbed 8.7 percent to end at US $3.00 in brisk trade of 18.9 million shares.
A dealer at a Singapore brokerage said interest in the stock was sparked off by Thai newspaper reports that government investment agency Temasek Holdings was looking to buy a 30 percent stake in the company although no deal had been reached because of disagreement over the price.
A Temasek spokeswoman said the company did not comment on market speculation.