Dealers said rotational buying interest in blue chips since last week had helped propel the STI to fresh highs, but buying interest seemed to be easing, with investors largely ignoring the 2004 GDP data released Thursday.
In the final report card for 2004, the government said Singapore's economy grew an annualised 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter, up from a preliminary estimate of 5.9 percent.
The revision brought full-year growth to 8.4 percent, higher than the previous estimate of 8.1 percent.
However, the government maintained its growth forecast for this year at 3.0-5.0 percent amid an expected slowdown in the semiconductor industry and high oil prices.
Earlier optimism among investors about the possibility of a generous government Budget for the year to March 2006 to be delivered on Friday had also eased, dealers said.
Among blue chips, Singapore Airlines (SIA) rose 20 Singapore cents to 12.60 Singapore dollars amid hopes that Singapore and Australia would agree an open skies policy later this year that would allow SIA to fly the lucrative Australia-US route.
Singapore Press Holdings was up two cents to 4.52, while Singapore Telecommunications fell one cent to 2.56.
Banking stocks were higher, with DBS gaining 10 cents to 16.20, United Overseas Bank gaining 20 cents to 14.30 and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp rising 10 cents to 13.90.
Property stocks were lower following recent gains, with CapitaLand down two cents at 2.35 and Keppel Lend declining one cent to 2.51.
Tech counters were flat to weaker. Venture Corp fell 20 cents to 16.50, Datacraft shed one US cent to 1.20 US dollars, Creative Technology was flat at 21.60 and Chartered Semiconductor remained unchanged at 1.12.