SINGAPORE, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Singapore shares closed 0.27 percent lower on Monday, as most investors were sidelined ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
Markets expected Trump to unveil some elements of his plans to cut taxes, including tax cuts for the middle class, simplification of the tax system. In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said tax system will be overhauled to make American companies more globally competitive with lower rates and changes to encourage manufacturing.
DBS said "Straits Times Index's 20-point drop last Friday off the 3,140 points level could well be an early warning of a choppy March. Our technical view remains for the current year-to-date rally to come to a pause around the 3,150 points level. We peg a short-term from 3,050 points to 3,150 points with firm support at 3,000 points."
Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index fell 8.41 points to 3,108.62 points. Trading volume was 2.26 billion shares worth 1.15 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 267 to 214.
Among top actives, Cosco Corporation (Singapore) jumped 16.1 percent to 32.5 Singapore cents. It reported a net loss of 313 million Singapore dollars in fourth quarter, mainly due to a huge provision of 276 million Singapore dollars made for inventory write downs. Its revenue in the quarter also fell 43.5 percent to 410 million Singapore dollars from 726 million Singapore dollars a year ago.
Venture Corporation rose 0.8 percent to 10.40 Singapore dollars. The electronics services provider reported fourth-quarter net profit of 54.1 million Singapore dollars, 20.6 percent higher from 44.8 million Singapore dollars declared a year ago on higher revenue. The improvement in profitability was driven by revenue growth, value creation, as well as improvements in operational excellence across the group's facilities and its entire value-chain.
Its revenue for the quarter grew 23.1 percent to 854.6 million Singapore dollars from 694 million Singapore dollars in the previous year, largely due to new product and program introduction by customers, in addition to revenue growth from customers won in recent years.
Among top gainers, Starhub rose 2.1 percent to 2.87 Singapore dollars, while Jardine Matheson became one of the top losers by falling 0.9 percent to 62.41 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.41 Singapore dollars)
