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ASIAN stock markets were in the red yesterday as investors doubted whether equities would be able to continue their incredible bull run for much longer.
Even a better-than-expected United States housing market report and small gains on Wall Street - the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.36 per cent to reach its highest level since November - failed to inspire much buying here.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell briefly to 2,593.61 in late afternoon trading before closing at 2,606.83. This was down 41.93 points, or 1.58 per cent, on the previous day.
Yesterday's losses represented in absolute terms the largest one-day drop since June 15, and extended Tuesday's 32.88-point decline.
'Valuations for some stocks do seem a bit stretched at this point in time, so investors are taking a breather,' said a local remisier.
About 2.43 billion shares worth $1.88billion changed hands.
STI's fall was mirrored at other Asian bourses. Taiwan's Taiex index fell 1.55 per cent, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 average declined 1.2 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 1.5 per cent, with Chinese bank stocks leading the declines.
The STI's reverses were largely due to a sell-off of SingTel shares and bank stocks.
SingTel slumped 18 cents, or 5.28 per cent, to $3.23 - its sharpest fall since November. This single-handedly shaved 17.1 points off the index. The stock started to trade ex-dividend from yesterday.
Profit-taking also saw United Overseas Bank falling 68 cents, or 3.93 per cent, to $16.62, and DBS Bank losing 30 cents to $13.40.
Neptune Orient Lines, which is due to announce second-quarter earnings results this morning, lost three cents to $1.69.
Bucking the declines was Sembcorp Marine, which surged to its highest close since Sept 24. The stock climbed 18 cents, or 5.66 per cent, to $3.36 on better-than-expected second-quarter results.
JPMorgan raised the stock's target price from $3.15 to $3.75 in expectation of more orders, given the improving economic outlook and impending orders from Petrobras.
Sembcorp Marine's parent, Sembcorp Industries, rose seven cents to $3.34. The parent company is slated to announce its results today.
Another winner was Chinese shipbuilder Yangzijiang, which climbed five cents, or 5.59 per cent, to 94.5 cents after it reported an 80 per cent rise in second-quarter profit to 607.4 million yuan (S$127 million). This was on the back of a 41 per cent jump in revenue to 2.5 billion yuan.
For the first half of the year, its net profit rose 54 per cent to an all-time high of 1.09 billion yuan.
'With a commanding cash position and a sizeable order book, the board remains confident of continued growth in production and profitability' for the current financial year, it said in a statement yesterday.
Creative Technologies added 11 cents to hit a fresh 11-month high of $7.08.
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