STI falls 0.6% to 3,125.37 at closing

Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.6% to 3,125.37 at the close. Almost three stocks fell for every one that advanced on the benchmark index of 30 companies.

Shares on the measure trade at an average 14.3 times estimated earnings, compared with about 15.6 times at the end of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The following shares were among the most active in the market.
Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (AREIT SP), Singapore’s biggest industrial property trust, rose 0.5% to $1.98. The company said the amount available for its dividend payout in the year ended March 31 rose 5.6% to $248 million from a year earlier.

 

CapitaLand (CAPL SP), Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, dropped 0.3% to $3.37, and CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT SP) lost 0.7% to $1.41. 

 

CapitaLand and its commercial property trust will spend about $1.4 billion developing a downtown Singapore office tower at its Market Street Car Park site. CapitaCommercial will hold 40% of the venture, which is expected to generate a yield exceeding 6%. The trust said separately its first-quarter distributable income for dividend payouts fell 4.1% to $52.1 million.

 

Genting Singapore Plc (GENS SP), operator of one of two casino resorts in the city-state, increased 1% to $2.13. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its rating to “buy” from “neutral.”

 

Singapore Exchange (SGX SP), the operator of the city- state’s securities and derivatives markets, slid 1.6% to $7.95. The company said third-quarter profit fell 10% to $67 million on costs linked to its failed attempt to buy Australia’s ASX.