Singapore - Shares continued to drift sideways on Wednesday, closing a mere 4.33 points, or 0.13 per cent, lower at 3,338,63.

The market has been in the doldrums for weeks amid a lack of any strong cues and no clear signs from the United States Federal Reserve about when it might start raising interest rates.

Oher regional bourses were also mostly lower. Sydney lost 0.6 per cent, Shanghai shed 0.35 per cent and Hong Kong sank 1.93 per cent.

Tokyo was among the few gainers, ending 0.25 per cent higher.

There were 1.08 billion shares that swapped hands locally, worth $820 million.

Losers beat gainers 252 to 153.

Thai Beverage was the top active, rising 2.5 cents to 73.5 cents on a turnover of 58 million shares.

The Singapore Exchange had said in a report on Tuesday that the firm had delivered the best returns - 190.5 per cent - among all consumer services stocks on the bourse over the past three years.