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Roundup: Singapore stocks end down 0.77 pct

Xinhua, June 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Singapore shares closed 0.77 percent lower on Thursday, buoyed by dovish signal from the U.S. Federal Reserve after two-day policy meeting.

Investors now push back their expected timing of a rate hike. The Federal Reserve said the economy was likely strong enough to support an interest rate increase by the end of the year. But it lowered its expectations for 2015 economic growth because of a weak start to the year and reduced its growth and federal funds rate forecast.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index fell 25.49 points to 3,300.42 points. Trading volume was 1.11 billion shares worth 867 million Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 240 to 180, while 543 stocks did not move.

Frasers Centerpoint Limited closed flat at 1.80 Singapore dollars. It announced the acquisition of Malmaison Hotel du Vin group (MHDV) of boutique lifestyle hotels for 760 million Singapore dollars. MHDV owns two upscale boutique lifestyle brands- Malmaison and Hotel du Vin and has a portfolio of 29 boutique lifestyle hotels and 2,082 keys across 25 cities in the United Kingdom.

Through this acquisition, Frasers Hospitality will almost double their offering in Europe to about 4,000 keys and will propel the group as one of the leading players in Britain.

SingPost Limited rose 0.3 percent to 1.915 Singapore dollars. It has acquired a 30 percent stake in Australian e-commerce firm Hubbed Holdings for about 4.3 million Australian dollars. SingPost said that if certain agreed performance benchmarks were met, SingPost would pay an additional 1 million Australian dollars to Hubbed. Otherwise, it would subscribe for another 5 percent shareholding interest in Hubbed.

Hubbed, a one-stop e-commerce service aggregator, has built a network of some 680 newsagents to provide a parcel delivery service in every major city across Australia.

Among top gainers, Raffles Medical Group rose 2.2 percent to 4. 65 Singapore dollars, while Jardine Strategic became one of the top losers by falling 1.3 percent to 30.16 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.277 Australian dollars and 1.33 Singapore dollars) Endi