SINGAPORE ­– Local shares meandered to a slight loss on Wednesday after traders found few leads to latch on to.

There was not much help from Wall Street overnight, with the S&P 500 nearly unchanged while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq lodged modest gains.

The uncertain mood here left the Straits Times Index (STI) down 0.4 per cent or 11.71 points to 3,286.12 on a day of mixed trading across Asia.

Losers edged out gainers 282 to 260 on the wider market, with 1.2 billion shares worth $870.2 million traded.

SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes noted: “The jury is still out, as one of the most challenging aspects of navigating this so-called bear market and the widely anticipated coming recession is the disparity between soft and hard economic variables that are like nothing in recent decades.”

That ambivalent theme was reflected across the region.

The Shanghai Composite Index, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose between 0.1 per cent and 0.6 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Malaysian shares fell between 0.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent.

The Australian bourse rose 0.5 per cent to hit a five-week high thanks to solid gains by tech stocks and miners.

Hongkong Land was the biggest winner on Singapore’s blue-chip index, gaining 1.9 per cent to finish at US$4.38 (S$5.82) and one of only five gainers among the 30 STI stocks.

The other winners were Singapore Exchange and Hongkong Land’s fellow members of the Jardine Matheson Group – DFI Retail Group, Jardine Matheson Holdings and Jardine Cycle & Carriage.

Sembcorp Industries was at the bottom of the table, falling 2.3 per cent to $4.23.

Genting Singapore was the most actively traded constituent stock. It closed flat at $1.16 after 28.7 million shares changed hands.

The local banks all fell lower. DBS lost 0.5 per cent to $32.32, UOB slipped 0.2 per cent to $30.01 and OCBC dropped 0.4 per cent to $12.74. THE BUSINESS TIMES