Investors across the region sent markets heading south yesterday amid a gloomy economic outlook and poor earnings from Wall Street blue chips.
The Straits Times Index (STI) fared better than most, closing down a mere 0.11 per cent, or 3.82 points, to 3,361.05.
Much of yesterday's downbeat sentiment stemmed from weak results overnight from Nasdaq-listed rail freight company CSX Corporation and the Bank of Korea's first interest rate cut in three years.
FXTM chief market strategist Hussein Sayed noted of CSX's performance: "Transport companies are fast to pick slowdowns in an economy and if we see this trend of disappointing earnings spread into other logistics providers, then it will send a clear warning to investors."
He added that United States President Donald Trump's recent remarks about having "a long way to go" in US-China trade talks were hardly encouraging either, as the damage done to the global economy will eventually be beyond the ability of monetary policies to fix.
About 1.01 billion shares worth $1.05 billion changed hands here, with losers outnumbering gainers 222 to 184.
Tee International was highly active, with 68 million shares changing hands. The engineering group closed up 1 per cent at 10.1 cents.
Another active stock was precision manufacturer AEM Holdings, which surged 5.77 per cent to $1.10 on a volume of 27.3 million.
CGS-CIMB research analyst William Tng upgraded the stock to "add" from "hold" on Wednesday, saying that slowdown concerns for this year have been priced in.
He projected strong results for the tech company's second-quarter net profit, citing an average earnings sequential growth of 57 per cent in the second quarters of the past two years.
Its major customer, Intel, also appears on track for a product launch in October, which would require AEM to deliver test handlers to it.
AEM seems to be Intel's sole supplier for this product, said Mr Tng.
"AEM highlighted in its first-quarter results that it has secured follow-on projects from its key customer to develop hybrid extensions to the group's existing handlers," he noted.
"These new projects are expected to deliver meaningful revenue in 2020 and beyond."
CapitaLand Commercial Trust captured headlines and investor attention, announcing an issue price of $2.095 per new unit for its $220 million private placement.
It retreated 0.92 per cent to $2.15, with 20.2 million units traded.
