Singapore shares fall on Tuesday, bucking regional trend; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks retreated on Tuesday, bucking a regional trend where markets mostly rose, following overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) slipped 0.3 per cent or 8.67 points on Tuesday to end at 3,109.20. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 237 to 224 after 1.76 billion shares worth S$1.08 billion changed hands.

ST Engineering was the top gainer on the index on Tuesday. Its shares rose 1 per cent or S$0.04 to close at S$3.93.

Finishing at the bottom of the STI performance table was Venture Corporation, with its shares falling 2.8 per cent or S$0.53 to close at S$18.20. It was also among the top traded counters by value on Tuesday, with shares worth S$78 million changing hands.

In a note on Tuesday, DBS Group Research said that the global chip shortage shows no signs of abating, as demand remained strong. It noted that the fortunes of mid-to-downstream players could be mixed, and the shortage could impact companies such as Venture Corp, Valuetronics and Nanofilm.

On the other hand, the research house said semiconductor plays such as AEM Holdings, Frencken Group and UMS Holdings are clear beneficiaries from the shortage.

Frencken shares rose S$0.02 or 1.2 per cent to S$1.71 on Tuesday, while AEM and UMS shares closed unchanged at S$3.67 and S$1.39 respectively,.

Elsewhere in the region, stocks mostly ended the day higher on Tuesday, tracking an overnight rally on Wall Street, as concerns about the pace of expected Federal Reserve monetary tightening eased.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 3.1 per cent, Australia's ASX 200 climbed 1.5 per cent, while South Korea's Kospi also closed 0.7 per cent higher. However, Hong Kong shares ended the day lower with the Hang Seng Index falling 0.6 per cent.