Singapore shares close lower after five straight days of gains

THE Straits Times Index on Tuesday fell 5.89 points to 2,864.67, its first day of weakness after five consecutive rises that saw it gain 141 points or 5.2 per cent.

The fall came in tandem with a 105-point slide in the Dow futures, a 1.5 per cent fall in the Hang Seng Index, and losses of about 1.5 per cent when Europe opened in the late afternoon.

The session yielded low turnover of 1.6 billion units worth S$951 million, probably because of Wednesday's public holiday. Excluding warrants, the whole market recorded 162 rises versus 219 falls.

Noble Group's nil-paid rights and its shares were the two most actively traded counters, the former ending at S$0.105 with 626 million traded and the latter closing S$0.017 higher at S$0.205 on volume of 164.4 million. Subscription to the one-for-one rights involves paying Noble S$0.11 per share.

SingPost's shares ended unchanged at S$1.53 with 11.8 million traded. The company on Monday said it has accepted all the recommendations made by a special audit and review in areas relating to management succession, conflicts of interest and disclosures, and processes for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and market disclosures.

Deutsche Bank (DB) on July 1 initiated coverage of SingPost with a "buy" and S$1.85 target price. "We think that recent leadership concerns should be seen in a positive light, such as the confirmation of a strong chairman, and the departure of legacy directors/management," said DB.