Singapore shares dipped on Monday, mirroring other regional markets, as the resurgence of Sars in China sparked selling in banks and China-focused stocks such as food firm Want Holdings.
"Certainly quite a bit the nervousness about the Singapore market is due to what we have been hearing over the weekend about the rediscovery of Sars in China," said Kenneth Tang, director at G.K. Goh Stockbrokers Pte Ltd. "But I am still positive about the general market. I reckon that the falls we've been seeing over the last day or so is really a correction after a fairly good rise."
The key Straits Times index closed 0.98 percent, or 18.26 points, down at 1,849.38. It is still up 4.8 percent since the start of the year.
Losers thrashed gainers 313 to 53 overall as volume eased to 629 million shares from 661 million on Friday.
Four new suspected cases of the Sars disease were reported in Beijing, after the first reported death from the virus since a major outbreak last year. The chain of infection was believed to have been spread from a national research laboratory.
When Sars hit last year, it killed more than 800 people world-wide and devasted Asia's crucial tourism industry.
Some investors said they were not unduly worried.
"It is always the usual knee jerk reaction," said Thio Boon Kiat, fund manager at UOB Asset Management, when asked if the selling was Sars-related.
"It (Sars) has come and gone so many times. It's just that the market sentiment is not great, so people are using that as an excuse," said Thio.
The fund manager said worries about rising interest rates and a possible slowdown in China's economy was also hurting sentiment.
Another dampener to sentiment came when government data showed on Monday Singapore's manufacturers produced fewer drugs and disk drives in March, suggesting the economy had not grown as quickly in the first quarter as the government provisionally estimated.
Analysts now expect gross domestic product figures to be revised down next month.
March manufacturing output fell by a surprising 12.3 percent after seasonal adjustment and following a decline of 8.2 percent in February. The February figure was itself a revision. The government originally estimated a rise of 0.2 percent.
Banking firm DBS Group dropped 2.1 percent to S$13.70.
United Overseas Bank (UOB) slipped 1.5 percent to S$13.50. Dutch bank ABN Amro said on Sunday it had selected the Singapore lender as the winning bidder to buy its 80.77 percent stake in Thailand's Bank of Asia PCL, but dealers said the news did not significantly impact the stock.
Taiwanese snack food maker Want, which enjoyed strong sales to China last year, slumped 12.3 percent to US $1.07.
China Aviation Oil, a jet fuel supplier to China, dipped 3.4 percent to S$2.26.