SINGAPORE: Singapore shares closed 1.29 percent lower on Friday, after U.S. stocks tumbled overnight due to growing concerns over global growth.
Investors had been struggling in recent sessions with a plunge in commodity markets, upheaval in global currency markets and a growing sense that the U.S. Federal Reserve remains too uncomfortable with the health of the U.S. economy to raise interest rates at its meeting next month.
The Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes last month showed officials are divided on when to raise interest rates, seen as a possibility as soon as September. Some Federal Reserve officials pointed to slowing growth in China’s once-booming economy as a reason for caution.
Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index fell 38.77 points to 2,971.01 points. Trading volume was 1.94 billion shares worth 1.54 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 368 to 129, while 442 stocks did not move.
