Singapore shares closed 0.45 percent lower on Friday, as investors treaded carefully before the release of U.S. non-farm payrolls report for August.

Investor will want to see if the job report will be strong enough to trigger two interest rate hikes for the rest of this year. Market in average expects Friday's U.S. jobs report to show U.S. employers added 180,000 jobs in August.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index fell 12.55 points to 2,803.92 points. Trading volume was 1.13 billion shares worth 1.02 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 194 to 155, while 559 stocks did not move.

Singapore Telecommunications, M1 and StarHub shed 2.5 percent, 5.6 percent and 4.4 percent to 3.87 Singapore dollars, 2.51 Singapore dollars and 3.47 Singapore dollars respectively. Singapore's listed telecommunications companies all fell fairly sharply in Friday trade, following the conclusion of a bidding process for a fourth mobile license in Singapore.

There are three parties bid for a license: MyRepublic, which already provides broadband services in Singapore, Australia's TPG Telecom, and a new firm called airYotta. The existing operators in Singapore will face increased competition in years ahead.

CapitaLand closed flat at 3.07 Singapore dollars, while City Development Limited rose 0.7 percent to 8.58 Singapore dollars. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Thursday it fine-tuned the refinancing rules under the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) framework to allow borrowers more flexibility in managing their existing debt obligations. With immediate effect, borrowers for all owner-occupied residential properties, including those bought after the introduction of TDSR, may be exempted from the TDSR framework when he refinances his housing loan.

Among top gainers, Jardine Matheson rose 1.1 percent to 60.65 U.S. dollars, whereas Hong Kong Land became one of the top losers by falling 1.7 percent to 6.43 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.36 Singapore dollars)

Source : XINHUA