Singapore stocks end down 0.31 pct

Singapore shares closed 0.31 percent lower on Tuesday, as weak oil prices prompted investors to take profits on recent market gains.

Crude oil prices fell more than 1 percent overnight, as rising stockpiles of crude and refined fuel intensified fears of another major supply glut.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index fell 9.22 points to 2,919.54 points. Trading volume was 1.26 billion shares worth 935 million Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 232 to 158, while 515 stocks did not move.

Singapore Exchange fell 0.3 percent to 7.78 Singapore dollars. It said the securities market outage that hit Singapore bourse last week was the result of a hardware failure. A disk that ran an application to send out clearing confirmation messages to brokerages was detected as having failed on Thursday morning.

The bourse operator promised to improve its recovery time and evaluate how to prevent the same problem in the future. In a briefing on Tuesday, it also revealed it has contacted hardware and software vendors HP and Nasdaq to conduct an investigation into the problems. It has replaced faulty hardware and promises to improve planning scenarios for trading disruptions.

China Environment Limited halted trading on Tuesday. It has secured a contract amounting to 6 million Chinese yuan from Tsingshan Holding Group to supply four units of hybrid dust collectors (combination of electrostatic precipitator and filter dust collector). This contract is expected to be completed by second half of 2017.

Among the top gainers, Jardine Cycle and Carriage rose 2.9 percent to 37 Singapore dollars, whereas Singapore Airlines became one of the top losers by falling 1.3 percent to 10.94 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 6.69 Chinese yuan and 1.35 Singapore dollars) Endit