trader
Reuters

Singapore stocks fell for a second day on Monday, dragged by financials such as OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank.

The Straits Times Index fell 0.16 percent or 5 points to 3,325. It declined 0.71 percent on Friday, taking the year-to-date gains to 16 percent.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank lost 0.2 percent each.

DBS, Southeast Asia's largest bank, ended down 0.05 percent. The lender will report earnings on August 4.

Property developer United Industrial Corp ended little changed on Monday. Its its net profit fell 33 percent in the second-quarter due to increased expenses and fair value losses.

Raffles Medical pared most of its gains to close unchanged after reporting a 0.5 percent increase in the second-quarter net profit. The company said it expects the Group to remain profitable in 2017.

Shares in TT International were halted from trading pending the release of an announcement.

The Singapore-listed consumer electronics retailer company last week said that it had received a letter of demand from solicitors of unit Big Box Pte Ltd claiming repayment of S$50.75 million in alleged rental arrears.

About 2.8 billion shares worth S$1.4 billion changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 226 to 210.

Meanwhile, Asian shares turned positive after solid Chinese data on Monday following a lacklustre start.

The official Chinese manufacturing and services purchasing managers' indices both slipped in July, but remained above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan reversed early losses to rise 0.1 per cent.

Investors will also be keeping a close eye on data, including eurozone core inflation for July on Monday; the Reserve Bank of India's meeting on Wednesday, at which it is expected to cut rates; and Bank of England on Thursday, where it is likely to leave rates unchanged.