STI extends losses, falls 0.37% as it takes cue from Wall Street's overnight losses

SINGAPORE shares closed lower on Wednesday (Nov 10) for the second straight day as most regional bourses spent the day in a sea of red owing to Wall Street's overnight losses and China's crisis-hit real estate sector.

The key Straits Times Index (STI) fell 12.10 points or 0.37 per cent to 3,231.32. Year-to-date, the STI is up nearly 14 per cent.

Market sentiments were also dented by inflation concerns, which resurfaced following latest data out of China; the world's second-largest economy saw elevated consumer inflation and factory gate prices for October. More caution prevailed ahead of the release of crucial US consumer price index data.

Key regional gauges from Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and Malaysia closed in negative territory. Hong Kong and Taiwan bucked the trend, finishing higher for the day.

Oanda Asia-Pacific's senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley reckoned that the "main driver weighing on Asian sentiment" was China's property sector. Traders were edgy as the deadline for cash-strapped China Evergrande Group to make an offshore bond payment closed in. Another builder, Fantasia Holdings Group's shares plunged as much as 52 per cent in Hong Kong, following a 6-week halt after the company's surprise default, while debt woes over at Kaisa Group Holdings worsened worries over China's liquidity-hit real estate sector.

Halley added: "The silence from the Chinese government on how it will manage this situation, exacerbated by the Communist Party plenum in progress at the moment, continues to be deafening. Fears of defaults and disorderly collapses within the China property sector, and potential financial contagion, continue to stalk Asian investor sentiment."

On the home front, some 2.03 billion units worth S$1.05 billion were traded. Losers outpaced gainers with 256 counters down and 204, up.

Mainboard-listed SingHaiyi finished at a near 4-year high of S$0.118, after surging 9.3 per cent, led by news of a privatisation offer from an investment holding company owned by Gordon Tang and his wife, Celine Tang. The counter was also the day's sixth most active with 58 million shares changing hands.

Another counter, Cordlife Group, was the day's third most active counter with 74 million shares done. Shares of the cord blood bank firm jumped S$0.065 or 15.29 per cent to more than a 2-year high of S$0.49. According to ShareInvestor data, there were 3 married deals involving its shares which were transacted at S$0.52 each.

Valuetronics Holdings fell S$0.020 or 3.39 per cent to S$0.57. The mainboard-listed electronic manufacturing service provider reported a 38 per cent drop in net profit to HK$57 million (S$9.9 million) on the back of a 7 per cent drop in revenue to HK$1 billion for the 6-month period. The firm cited the results to severe shortage of key electronic components, which in turn, had affected its ability to meet orders for the weak results.

Hatten Land inched up S$0.001 or 1.61 per cent to S$0.063. The Catalist-listed group said it will join hands with Bursa-listed Nestcon to jointly secure, supply, construct, develop and manage solar panel facilities in Malaysia.