Singapore share prices closed 0.38 percent lower on Wednesday on profit-taking in select blue chips despite gains made by tech stocks, dealers said. The Straits Times Index fell 8.29 points to 2,155.10, while the broader All Singapore Equities Index fell 1.82 points to 558.81. Volume totalled 1.04 billion shares worth 914 million Singapore dollars (554 million US), from 807 million shares valued at 995 million dollars on Tuesday. Gainers led decliners 255 to 203, with 572 stocks unchanged.

"The market's been rising until yesterday and there's bound to be corrections along the way," Kim Eng Securities research head Seah Hiang Hong said.

"As for tech stocks, they're tracking Nasdaq's overnight gains and interest is coming back as prices recover after being down in past weeks," he said.

Singapore Telecommunications was lower on profit-taking after hitting a 52-week high on Monday, falling four Singapore cents to 2.57 Singapore dollars.

Other blue chips ended mixed, with Singapore Press Holdings steady at 4.50, Singapore Airlines rising 10 cents to 12.40, and ST Engineering gaining three cents to 2.45.

Technology counters also closed mixed. STATS ChipPAC rose three cents to 1.04 and UTAC gained 1.5 cents to 70 cents, Venture Corp shed 10 cents to 16.70 and Creative Technology was unchanged at 21.60.

Banking stocks ended the session mostly lower, with United Overseas Bank down 20 cents at 14.10, DBS falling 20 cents to 16.10 and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp steady at 13.80.

Chartered Semiconductor was the most actively traded stock, rising eight cents to 1.12.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005