SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Local shares headed south on Thursday after lacklustre hiring data in the United States and comments on rate hikes by a Federal Reserve official sent Wall Street tumbling into the into the red overnight.
The Straits Times Index responded by losing 7.8 points or 0.25 per cent to 3,175.10. Gainers trailed losers 217 to 283 after 1.38 billion shares worth $1.3 billion were transacted.
Technology solutions provider Frencken Group rose 14.14 per cent to $2.18, a day after an analyst raised the target price of the mainboard-listed firm to $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, dipped of 19 cents - more than its dividend of 15.4 cents - following its Aug 4 late-night announcement that a wholly-owned subsidiary has received a summons.
This concerns alleged breaches of the Air Navigation Act for the use of unmanned drones at its construction sites.
Boustead Projects shares closed at $1.10, down 14.7 per cent.
SinoCloud Group was the most traded with 94 million shares transacted although the counter closed flat at 0.1 cent.
SinoCloud started as an IT service provider and has diversified into IT-related assets, with data centres being a major investment for the Catalist-listed company.
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 cross-hairs.
The Shanghai Composite fell 0.31 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.84 per cent.
South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.13 per cent but Australia's ASX 200 closed 0.11 per cent higher and another record close, Japan's Nikkei 225, added 0.52 per cent while Malaysian stocks advanced 0.30 per cent.
