European debt crisis pulls Singapore shares down

Fears of worsening European debt crisis caused steep losses in Wall Street overnight and pulled Singapore shares 3.45 percent lower.

DBS Group Research said "The global economies deteriorate further and the Europe debt issues continue to be a drag on the market," said the DBS Group Research.

 The research house revised its Straits Times Index support to 2,500 points, based on a mild recession scenario.

The benchmark Straits Times Index sank 90.38 points to close at 2,531.02 points. Trading volume was 1.64 billion shares worth 1.75 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners heavily outnumbered gainers by 453 to 94, while 655 stocks closed unchanged.

Among top actives, Midas Holdings dived 5.9 percent to 32 Singapore cents. DMG and Partners Securities Research downgraded it to "Neutral" from "Buy" and cut its target price to 40 Singapore cents from 65 Singapore cents. The research house noted Midas' share price continued to be weighed down by recent negative news, such as the Shanghai metro train crash. Midas' share price is likely to trend side-ways in the near-term until comfort can be gained on Ministry of Railways' financial health and order wins recovery, said DMG and Partners.

Keppel Corporation lost 5 percent to 7.10 Singapore dollars. The world's largest rig-builder said it has secured an order worth 199 million U.S. dollars from Safin Gulf to build a high- specification jack-up rig.

The full story is available at Xinhua News.