Singapore stocks edged lower for the second day, in line with most other bourses across Asia.
The benchmark Straits Times Index pared 7.94 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 2,993 - failing to hold above the milestone 3,000 mark it had crossed on Tuesday.
Most other markets in the region fell as well. Tokyo dropped 1.19 per cent, Shanghai eased 0.56 per cent, and Hong Kong slid 0.46 per cent.
However, Seoul advanced 0.58 per cent and Kuala Lumpur also inched up, by 0.15 per cent.
Uncertainty has crept back into global markets after United States President-elect Donald Trump offered scant detail about his fiscal policies at his first press conference since the election on Wednesday.
Still, Wall Street climbed 0.5 per cent overnight, in line with a rebound in crude prices.
"Despite the US moving higher last night, there are regional concerns surrounding trade tariffs and protectionism from the Trump administration which were not addressed last night," said CMC Markets sales trader Alex Furber in a note. He added: "Markets may remain in wait-and-see mode ahead of US earnings and Trump's inauguration."
At home, among the blue chips, most of the action was dominated by warehouse provider Global Logistic Properties (GLP), which jumped 10 cents or 4 per cent to $2.61. Turnover was sizeable at $63.7 million.
The buying enthusiasm followed a Bloomberg report that said Warburg Pincus is forming a group to bid for the firm. GLP also said yesterday that it has signed long-term lease extensions with a leading global appliance firm, accounting for 3.6 million sq ft at three US facilities.
Elsewhere, Vard Holdings sank one cent or 3.9 per cent to 24.5 cents. The shipbuilder announced before the market open that the voluntary conditional cash offer from Fincantieri Oil & Gas to buy out the remaining shares which it does not hold in Vard has been declared unconditional. It added that Fincantieri has obtained consent from the Securities Industry Council to reduce the acceptance condition to a level of more than 50 per cent.
Engineering solutions firm ISDN Holdings slumped 2.5 cents or 9.4 per cent to 24 cents. "The stock had risen over 20 per cent in the past week over the dual-listing hype, so some profit taking is not surprising," a trader said in a NetResearch Asia note, referring to the group's proposed dual listing in Hong Kong.
Healthway Medical Corporation requested a trading halt on its shares at about 11am, pending an announcement. The stock last traded at 3.8 cents, 0.1 cent or 2.7 per cent up on the previous day's close.
Noble Group was the most heavily traded, climbing 0.1 cent or 0.6 per cent to 17.5 cents on 86 million shares done. Other actives included AA Group Holdings, which soared 0.9 cent or 30 per cent to 3.9 cents. A total of 1.73 billion shares worth $1.23 billion changed hands across the bourse.
