SINGAPORE shares resumed trading in negative territory on Wednesday, with the Straits Times Index losing 0.4 per cent, or 13.78 points to 3,122.17 as at 1pm. 

Decliners outnumbered advancers 161 to 128, after about 421.2 million shares worth S$424.9 million changed hands. 

Among the most heavily traded by volume, YZJ Shipbuilding fell 2.1 per cent, or two Singapore cents to 95 cents with 29.7 million shares traded, while Synagie gained 6.3 per cent, or one cent to 17 cents, with 14.6 million shares traded. 

Banking stocks were mostly down by the afternoon trade - DBS lost 0.7 per cent, or 17 cents to S$24.54, United Overseas Bank shed 0.8 per cent, or 20 cents to S$24.79, whilst OCBC Bank was flat at S$10.69. 

Other active stocks included ST Engineering which lost 2.9 per cent, or 12 cents to S$4 on an ex-dividend basis, and CapitaLand which fell 1.1 per cent, or four cents to S$3.49. Meanwhile, Thai Beverage added 1.1 per cent, or one cent to 90 cents.  

As at 1.30pm, shares in Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) were up 1.4 per cent, or three cents to S$2.14, and units in SPH Reit (real estate investment trust) gained 0.9 per cent, or one cent to S$1.08. This comes after the manager of SPH Reit on Wednesday announced that it has established a S$1 billion multicurrency debt issuance programme, with part of the proceeds to be potentially used for a possible acquisition. SPH Reit's sponsor, SPH publishes The Business Times.

Elsewhere in Asia, equities traded mixed, with Japanese stocks declining 0.7 per cent, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 1.1 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.1 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, data from Bloomberg show.