Wall Street performance weighs on Singapore stocks; STI dips 0.25%

SINGAPORE shares slipped on Thursday after lacklustre hiring data in the United States and its central bank vice-chairman's comments on tapering and rate hikes turned Wall Street into the red overnight.

The Republic's blue-chip gauge, the Straits Times Index, edged lower by 7.8 points or 0.25 per cent to 3,175.10 points.

Technology solutions provider Frencken Group saw the price of its shares rise by 14.14 per cent to S$2.18, a day after an analyst raised the target price of the mainboard-listed firm to S$2.34, in part driven by a bullish earnings forecast of an over 60 per cent jump.

Boustead Projects, which went ex-dividend on Aug 5, witnessed a dip of S$0.19 - more than its dividends of S$0.154 - following its Aug 4 late-night announcement that a wholly-owned subsidiary has received summons over alleged breach of the Air Navigation Act for the use of unmanned drones at its construction sites.

Boustead Projects shares closed at S$1.10.

SinoCloud Group shares were the most traded as over 94 million transacted, with the counter closing flat at 0.1 Singapore cent. SinoCloud started as an IT service provider and has diversified into IT-related investments, with data centres being a major investment for the Catalist-listed company.

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Gainers trailed losers 217 to 283 on the broader market, as 1.38 billion securities worth S$1.3 billion transacted.

The performance of Asian markets was mixed, with the Chinese bourses weighed down by regulatory risk as the online gaming industry now appears to be in the regulator's crosshairs. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.31 per cent to 3,466.55 points; Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.84 per cent at 26,204.69 points.

South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.13 per cent to 3,276.13 points.

But Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.11 per cent higher at 7,511.15 points, and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.52 per cent to 27,728.12 points. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed 0.30 per cent higher at 1,495.78 points.