Singapore shares close lower on Tuesday, dragged down by Wall Street

SINGAPORE shares ended lower on Tuesday, with European traders taking stock of the steep sell-off on Wall Street and the latest development involving a possible US-China trade war as they return from their Easter break.

The Straits Times Index traded within the range of 3,387.38 to 3,412.15, before settling at 3,412.15, down 0.54 per cent, or 18.61 points, from Monday's close. More than 1.5 billion shares, worth S$1.2 billion, changed hands, with 147 gainers to 263 losers.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Genting Singapore and Sembcorp Industries were among the losers. Thai Beverage Public Company, Golden Agri-Resources and Hongkong Land were among the gainers.

Investors took their cue from US markets which tumbled on the first trading session back after Easter holidays, both on trade war fears and a bearish turn for technology stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.9 per cent lower while the broad-based S&P 500 shed 2.2 per cent.