S'pore shares end little changed, SingTel active

S'pore shares end little changed, SingTel active Joyce Liu Reuters SINGAPORE

Singapore shares failed to hold in positive territory on Tuesday as worried investors rushed to dump shares after short- lived gains, with volume skewed by a massive block trade in Singapore Telecommunications.

"The market could be volatile from now on but the uncertainty about the future will keep a cap on any gains," said a trader at a European brokerage.

After jumping more than 2 percent at one stage, the benchmark Straits Times Index ended down 0.25 percent at 1,281.52 points on concerns about U.S. military action after the Sept.11 attacks and the worsening economy at home.

The STI, which gained 3.5 percent on Monday, has lost 18 percent since the attacks in New York and Washington and more than 33 percent so far this year.

Turnover was a record two billion shares, against Monday's 405 million.

SingTel, which recently completed its acquisition of C&W Optus in Australia, saw a block of 781 million shares crossed at S$1.64 on Tuesday afternoon.

Another 575 million of SingTel 100 and 301 million of SingTel 10 crossed at the same price.

The block was believed to belong to Britain's Cable & Wireless Plc, which said in June it agreed to sell up to 848.7 million SingTel shares it would get for its stake in Optus.

Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday it sold a block of 835 million SingTel shares for a total of $782 million but declined to discuss their origin or the identity of the buyer.

No one at SingTel was available to comment.

SingTel ended one cent higher at S$1.74 on volume of 792 million shares.

Overall momentum was initially helped after bullish comments from top strategists lifted the Dow Jones industrial average to its fifth-biggest point gain.

The Dow rose 4.47 percent or 368.05 points to 8,603.86 in its first bounce since the attacks. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 5.35 percent to 1,499.40 after plummeting 16 percent last week.

Singapore posted blazing 9.9 percent growth last year.

The government also said it was working on more substantial off-budget measures than the S$2.2 billion ($1.26 billion) package announced in July and would unveil details in mid- October.