Singapore shares edged lower on Thursday, tracking weak Asian equities after Wall Street snapped six-day rally amid a jump in government bond yields.
Rally in Asian shares petered out while bond markets reeled under losses amidst news reports that senior officials in Beijing have recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. bonds.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.5 percent, slipping further from Tuesday's 10-year peak. Japan's Nikkei also lost 0.5 percent, Reuters data showed.
At 0535 GMT, the Straits Times Index was down 0.1 percent or 3 points to 3,517. It ended 0.12 percent lower on Wednesday.
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Among the lenders, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp added 0.1 percent, United Overseas Bank gained 0.2 percent while DBS Group Holdings dropped 0.1 percent.
Active stocks included, Joyas International climbing 17 percent to S$0.01 while Blumont jumped 40 percent to S0.002 in afternoon trades.
OUE Lippo Healthcare, the unit of OUE Ltd, jumped 21 percent after saying it would raise S$78.75 million through a proposed placement of 562.5 million shares to Japanese trading firm ITOCHU Corp.
Food and beverage maker BreadTalk Group rose 0.6 percent after it priced its S$100 million worth of 4 percent notes due January 17, 2023
Engineering services firm Rotary Engineering's controlling shareholder, the Chia family group, has succeeded in taking the mainboard-listed company private. Shares in the company were unchanged at S$0.46.
About 1.6 billion shares worth S$602 million changed hands, with losers outnumbering gainers 218 to 144.
