SINGAPORE: Singapore shares closed lower on Tuesday, following losses on Wall
Street and as profit-takers moved in after last week's huge gains sparked by the
US Federal Reserve stimulus plan.
The benchmark ST Index slid 10.74
points, or 0.35 percent, to 3,067.98.
DBS Group fell 1.16 percent to
S$14.45 and CapitaLand shed 0.62 percent to S$3.21.
Elsewhere, Asian markets mostly
fell on Tuesday.
Anti-Japan protests across China
also hit shares in both countries, with three of Japan's biggest car makers
saying they had closed their factories or cut production in China as a result.
Tokyo closed 0.39 percent,
or 35.62 points, lower at 9,123.77 and Sydney fell 0.18 percent, or 7.8 points,
to 4,394.7 while Seoul edged up 0.13 percent, or 2.61 points, to close at
2,004.96.
Hong Kong shed 0.27
percent, or 56.18 points, to 20,601.93 while Shanghai fell 0.91 percent, or
18.96 points, to 2,059.54.
Investors were taking a step back
after the Fed on Thursday said it would start a third round of bond-buying,
known as quantitative easing (QE3), in a bid to jump-start the US economy.
The announcement, which followed
a European Central Bank plan to buy the debt of under-pressure eurozone
nations, had injected global markets with some much-needed risk appetite on
Friday.
But profit-taking on Wall Street
Monday was fuelled by data showing the Fed's Empire State manufacturing index
for the New York region fell for a second straight month in September.
The Dow fell 0.30 percent, the
S&P 500 slid 0.31 percent and the Nasdaq shed 0.17 percent.
"The big question was how
long the exuberance of QE3 was going to last. Not very long it seems," Tim
Waterer, senior trader at CMC Markets in Sydney, told Dow Jones Newswires.
On currency markets the dollar
was changing hands at 78.64 yen in early European trade, compared with 78.70
yen in New York late Monday.
The euro fetched $1.3085 and
102.96 yen, down from $1.3114 and 103.22 yen.
With the Fed and ECB action
unveiled, eyes are now on a two-day policy meeting of the central Bank of Japan
that starts on Tuesday, while China is due to release manufacturing activity
figures for September on Thursday.
Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a political
stand-off over a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea that have seen
violent protests across China which have hit shares.
Honda Motor said it had
temporarily closed all five of its China plants, while Nissan shut two of three
factories and Toyota said it had scaled back some production without
elaborating.
The decisions came after
Panasonic said it suspended operations at some of its facilities in China and
Fast Retailing temporarily closed seven of its 145 Uniqlo stores in the
country.
In Tokyo, Nissan slumped 5.01
percent, Toyota closed 0.62 percent lower and Honda was off 2.5 percent.
Panasonic eased 0.7 percent and Fast Retailing tumbled 6.97 percent.
Kenichi Hirano, market analyst at
Tachibana Securities, said the islands are like "clouds hanging low in the
sky", adding some retailers who had outlets in China could be negatively
affected.
Oil prices also eased, with New
York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, losing 31
cents to $96.30 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for November delivery losing
73 cents to $113.97 06.
Gold was at $1,756.35 at 1050 GMT
compared with $1,770.20 on Monday.
In other markets:
Taipei dropped 0.36
percent, or 27.96 points, to 7,734.26.
Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Co shed 0.92 percent to Tw$85.7 while Hon Hai Precision was 1.44
percent lower at Tw$96.1.
Manila closed 0.37 percent
lower, dipping 19.77 points to 5,331.13.
Bank of the Philippine Islands
dropped 1.98 percent to 76.90 pesos and Metropolitan Bank and Trust was down
1.18 percent to 91.90 pesos.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone
fell 0.90 percent to 2,864 pesos.
Wellington fell 0.33
percent, or 12.76 points, to 3,804.48.
Fletcher Building fell 0.9
percent to NZ$6.88 and Telecom was down 0.6 percent at NZ$2.49.
Jakarta fell 0.74 percent,
or 31.39 points, at 4,223.89.
Timah fell 3.71 percent to 1,560
rupiah, Astra Agro Lestari lost 1.98 percent to 22,300 rupiah, while Telkom
rose 1.6 percent to 9,400 rupiah.
Kuala Lumpur stocks lost
2.62 points, or 0.16 percent, to end at 1,640.33.
AirAsia fell 4.2 percent to 2.97
ringgit and Petronas Dagangan was down 1.7 percent at 22.40. Tradewinds Corp
surged 17 percent to 1.01 ringgit.
Bangkok dropped 0.44 percent
or 5.68 points to 1,272.86.
- Coal producer Banpu fell 3.04
percent to 446.00 baht, while PTT lost 1.17 percent to 338.00 baht.
Mumbai slid 0.25 percent,
or 46.3 points, to 18,496.01.
Software exporter Wipro fell 3.79
percent to 369.6 rupees while rival TCS dropped 3.02 percent to 1,300.4 rupees.
India's largest private firm
energy giant Reliance Industries slid 2.11 percent to 855.2 rupees.
- AFP/de
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