Singapore shares fell on Thursday from their five-year high in the previous session, with transport operator ComfortDelGro Corp Ltd leading a broad-based decline in the index.
The Straits Times Index was down 1.3 percent at 3,409.97, while the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 2 percent.
The index declined amid a broad-based fall in Asian markets after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's remarks sparked worries of a reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus.
ComfortDelGro shares fell as much as 12 percent after its biggest shareholder sold two-thirds of its holding.
Among small-cap gainers, Cedar Strategic Holdings Ltd , whose shares jumped as much as 66.7 percent to match a peak of S$0.015 on Feb. 28, after the company said it would acquire a property firm in Guizhou, China for S$936.2 million in its bid to establish itself as a regional real estate player.
Shares of airport and food services provider SATS fell 2.4 percent to S$3.28, after hitting a six-year high in the previous session.
More than 447 million shares were traded, 11.3 times the average full-day volume over the past 30 days, making Cedar Strategic the most actively traded stock by volume on Thursday.
1233 (0433)
(Reporting by Joyce Lim; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)
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12:29 STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-SATS may increase dividend in coming years-Maybank
SATS Ltd, an airport and food services provider, is likely to increase its dividend in the coming years, as the company is expected to expand margins with its various businesses showing strength, according to Maybank Kim Eng.
"SATS announced special dividends in the last three years and we expect this to be the new normal," Maybank said in a research note on Thursday.
"We expect ordinary DPS (dividend per share) to increase by 1 cent over each of the next three years, which could be achieved with a very comfortable average payout ratio of less than 80 percent."
SATS may benefit from growing air travel in Japan on the back of a weaker yen. Its various other businesses in the catering, food and beverage segments will help the company achieve economies of scale, Maybank said.
Maybank upgraded its call on the stock to "buy" and set the target price at S$3.90.
SATS shares rose to a six-year high of S$3.36 in the previous session. They were down 0.04 percent at S$3.32 on Thursday. Its shares have gained nearly 15 percent this year, lagging the Asia-Pacific sector index's 19 percent rise.
