Singapore bourse drops 1.72% on Monday

Singapore shares closed 1.72 percent lower, after investors decided to take profit following sharp gains in stock prices last week. DBS Group Research said "a pause to the current rally is likely in the near-term with 2,780 points and 2,830 points as support and 2,920 points and 2,945 points as resistance." The benchmark Straits Times Index fell 49.95 points to close at 2,855.77 points. Trading volume was 1.48 billion shares worth 1.35 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered gainers 344 to 128, while 756 stocks closed unchanged. SembCorp Marine fell 3.2 percent to 4.22 Singapore dollars, despite announcing its Sembawang Shipyard unit secured a Floating Storage Offloading conversion contract worth 300 million U.S. dollars for Exxon Mobil. The conversion was scheduled to be completed by first quarter of 2014. SMRT lost 0.6 percent to 1.84 Singapore dollars. OCBC Investment Research downgraded it to "Hold" from "Buy", but kept 2. 04 Singapore dollars as its fair value. The transit operator reported a second quarter net profit of 34.1 million Singapore dollars, down 25.6 percent on year, while revenue was 261.1 million Singapore dollars, up 6.1 percent on year. Singapore Airlines shed 0.6 percent to 11.72 Singapore dollars as it could benefit from the recent disruption that hit one of its main rivals, Qantas Airways, which competes with Singapore Airlines on routes between Europe and Australia as well as some parts of Southeast Asia, grounded its entire fleet on Saturday because of a labor dispute, causing tens of thousands of passengers to be stranded around the world. Otto Marine retreated 3.6 percent to 13.4 Singapore cents. The offshore marine group said it expects to report a loss for its third quarter, compared with a profit for the same period a year earlier. The company said the expected loss is largely due to the volatility in foreign exchange rates of the euro against the U.S. dollar, as well as reduced revenue from its subsidiary as a result of lower vessel utilization. Among the top gainers, City Development advanced 1.2 percent to 10.91 Singapore dollars, while Jardine Matheson became one of the top losers by falling 2.9 percent to 50.78 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.25 Singapore dollars)