STI lost 0.7% at 3,087.36 points by midday

Singapore shares slipped by midday, weighed by property developers such as CapitaLand after new government measures were introduced to cool the city-state’s property market.

The STI lost 0.7% at 3,087.36 points by midday, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan
fell 0.7%, as investors remained cautious over the outlook for the global economy and ahead of corporate earnings results for the third quarter.

CapitaLand, Southeast Asia’s largest property developer, was the worst performer on the benchmark Straits Times Index , falling 2.7% to $3.21, while smaller rival City Developments fell 2.3% to $11.67.

Singapore capped the maximum tenure of all new residential property loans at 35 years, with loans exceeding 30 years facing significantly tighter loan-to-value limits, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement on Friday.

CIMB Research named oil rig builder Keppel Corp as one of its top picks for the fourth quarter of the
year, citing potentially better-than-expect margins for offshore and marine and strong orders.

“The group’s aggressive bids for the speculative building of jack-up rigs since the beginning of the jack-up rig rush at end-2010 have paid off,” said CIMB, as Keppel now is the biggest builder of jack-up rigs in the world.