SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices are to remain volatile next week, with uncertainty over the health of the US economy casting a shadow on investors, dealers said.

They said stock market investors would closely monitor developments coming out of the United States over the holiday-lengthened weekend.

The weak US economy makes for "wobbly markets" and investors will take a short-term view ahead of the close of the first quarter this month, said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB-GK Research in Singapore.

"The market is looking to see who will be hit next," he added, referring to financial market turmoil which has battered some of the biggest names on Wall Street.

The OECD said on Thursday the US economy was teetering on the brink of recession and slashed growth estimates for the first half of this year.

It said the US economy was now expected to grow 0.1 percent in the first quarter, a sharp reduction from the 0.3 percent estimated in December, and to show zero growth in the second, a sudden halt compared with 0.4 percent given previously.

For the holiday-shortened week ending March 20, the Straits Timex Index closed at 2,824.91, down 14.1 points, or 0.50 percent, from the previous week. Markets are closed on Friday for Easter.

Average daily volume was 1.50 billion shares valued at 1.77 billion Singapore dollars (1.29 billion US), compared with 1.46 billion shares worth 1.77 billion Singapore dollars the week before.


- AFP/so