Singapore stocks fell on Wednesday, in line with Asian shares after a slide on Wall Street overnight as simmering geopolitical tensions kept many investors on edge.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7 percent.
Risk appetite waned after North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, which it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, prompting the threat of a "massive" military response from the United States if it or its allies were threatened.
The White House declared on Monday that "all options to address the North Korean threat are on the table", Reuters reported.
At 0620 GMT, the Straits Times Index lost 0.56 percent or 18 points to 3,232. It ended 0.63 percent higher on Tuesday, taking the year-to-date performance to about 13 percent.
An economists poll by the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed analysts have raised their forecasts for Singapore's economic growth in the third quarter, but they expect the economy to grow 2.5 percent this year, unchanged from their forecast in June.
Lenders such as United Overseas Bank fell 0.8 percent, DBS Group Holdings dropped 0.1 percent and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp declined 1.2 percent.
Shares in Singapore's largest taxi company, ComfortDelGro fell 1.4 percent after rival Grab launched what it calls "huge rental discounts" to woo its customers.
Commodity trader Noble Group said shareholders approved the sale of its North American gas and power unit to rival Mercuria Energy Group. The stock was down 2 percent.
About 1.2 billion shares worth S$671 million changed hands, with losers outnumbering gainers 246 to 104.
