Singapore stocks end down 1.11 pct

Singapore shares closed 1.11 percent lower on Thursday, as investors waited for U.S. non-farm payroll numbers due Friday.

While worries of near-term U.S. interest rate hikes receded following cautious comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on monetary tightening, concerns over global growth outlook still weighed on market sentiment.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index dropped 31.88 points to 2,840.90 points. Trading volume was 2.35 billion shares worth 1.33 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 224 to 161, while 536 stocks did not move.

Among the top actives, YuuZoo Corporation soared 16.8 percent to 23 Singapore cents. It has sealed an agreement with Alibaba Sports Group to organize the AliSports World Electronic Sport Games (WESG) as and manage the E-Sports Clubs Competition Center for Alibaba in China. WESG will start next month with 20 e-sports clubs competition centers.

Stratech Group fell 9.4 percent to 2.9 Singapore dollars. It expects to incur a net loss for financial year 2016, attributing the loss to lower revenue due to the late award of several projects which the group had expected to commence earlier. As a result, a greater portion of revenue from these projects is expected to be recognized in financial year 2017. It also blamed an increase in costs, including staff costs, to build up its operations team and the rental of facilities to deliver targeted contracts. The firm said it has about 55 million Singapore dollars of orders, including options. Up to about a third of these contracts are expected to be delivered in financial year 2017.

Among the top gainers, Jardine Matheson rose 1.5 percent to 57.08 Singapore dollars, whereas Jardine Cycle and Carriage became one of the top losers by falling 2.1 percent to 40.03 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.35 Singapore dollars) Endit