Market Summary 21 July 2012

Singapore shares snapped a five-session rally to end lower Friday as uncertainties over the global economy and corporate earnings prompted investors to book profits ahead of the weekend.

The 30-share Straits Times Index fell 0.4%, or 13.43 points, to 3,015.53, reversing some of the index's 1.9% gain over the last five sessions. Despite the fall, the index still ended the week 0.7% higher.

"It's quite a bit of profit-taking," said Carey Wong, an analyst at OCBC. "We are approaching the weekend. Yesterday, we did hit the previous high--3,033--but the market wasn't very convinced. It didn't have the strength to sustain itself."

Noting that corporate earnings have so far been in line with expectations, Mr. Wong said "what potentially could happen is the market has not run too much ahead, but most of the positives may have been priced in. So for the market to continue to push ahead or stretch valuations may be a little bit tough."

Volume, while relatively sparse, inched higher to 1.27 billion shares from the 1.24 billion shares traded Thursday, while decliners outnumbered gainers 223 to 133.

Property-related stocks performed poorly, led lower by shopping mall developer CapitaMalls Asia's 2.2% decline to S$1.58. Real estate group CapitaLand fell 0.3% to S$2.95, while rival City Developments retreated 0.1% to S$11.89.

Other counters sensitive to economic cycles also slumped, including palm oil producer Golden Agri-Resources, which fell 1.3% to S$0.760. Rival Wilmar International eased 1.1% to S$3.58, while Olam International declined 0.8% to S$1.845.

Singapore Exchange was among just eight gainers on the benchmark index, rising 1.1% to S$6.75 after U.K. newspaper Daily Telegraph reported late Thursday that the bourse may be in talks with the London Stock Exchange on a potential merger. SGX denied the rumors in a statement issued late in Friday trading.

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