Singapore shares closed 0.07 percent lower on Thursday, weighed by HSBC China manufacturing data which fell to a seven-month low.

The preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to a seven-month low of 48.3 in February, compared with a final reading of 49.5 in January.

A reading above 50 indicates an expansion from the previous month, while a reading below 50 indicates a contraction. Market now speculated that Beijing leaders may fine-tune policy to keep growth at a steady pace in the coming year.

Meanwhile, minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting showed it remained on track to taper its stimulus despite a recent spate of downbeat U.S. economic data. The minutes showed members on the Federal Reserve's policy setting committee emphasized their commitment to trimming the central bank's asset- purchase program in predictable 10-billion U.S. dollars steps.

The Federal Reserve's stance to maintain its the pace of stimulus-tapering comes despite a recent run of weak U.S. data, possibly reflecting confidence among policymakers about the growth trajectory.

The benchmark fell 2.15 points to close at 3,086.64 points. Trading volume was 1.61 billion shares worth 928 million Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 225 to 183, while 532 stocks closed unchanged.

Phillip Securities Research said "although we have a longer term bullish bias due to macro fundamentals, we recognize we have been on an intermediate term downtrend."

Among top actives, WE Holdings sank 17.6 percent to 2.8 Singapore cents. It has entered into a memorandum of understanding to on-sell iron ore lumps and iron ore fines produced by Malaysian miner, ATR Natural Resources, to Shanghai-based trading company, Pacific Treasure International.

Sin Heng Heavy Machinery fell 0.5 percent to 19.3 Singapore cents. It has been awarded the exclusive distributorship of Arcomet's self - erecting crane in Singapore as well as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

SIIC Environment closed flat at 19.5 Singapore cents. It reported fourth quarter revenue of 31.1 million Chinese yuan, including close to 27 million Chinese yuan of one-off charges. These non-operating charges were 4 million Chinese yuan of forex losses, 11 million Chinese yuan of impairment of goodwill and 14 million Chinese yuan of doubtful receivables. Without this, its core profit would be 58.7 million Chinese yuan.

Among the top gainers, UOB rose 0.5 percent to 20.70 Singapore dollars, while Jardine Strategic became one of the top losers by falling 0.9 percent to 32.68 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 6.084 Chinese yuan and 1.27 Singapore dollars) Endi

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