Singapore shares snapped a two-day winning streak to end lower today in line with most Asian bourses, with weak leads from US futures an additional negative factor.

Traders and analysts say the market is likely to see some more selling pressure tomorrow as investors look to book profit ahead of a shortened week. The market is closed on Friday for the Easter holiday.

The benchmark 30-Straits Times Index finished the day 45.93 points, or 1.6%, lower at 2,887.46 with losers eclipsing gainers 377 to 142. In the broader market 1.65 billion shares changed hands compared with 1.44 billion traded yesterday.

“I’ve already squared off all my positions. You have to, in a market like this. It’s not worth holding open positions, especially with the long weekend just around the corner,” a dealer with a foreign brokerage said.

Some analysts also advised investors to hold on to their positions.

“A good idea might be to hold back any heavy positions to enter for today, as tomorrow is the last trading day of the week,” SIAS Research technical analyst Edmund Seow said in a note.

Most of the 30 STI components were in the red, with Fraser & Neave and Singapore Technologies Engineering being notable exceptions.

Fraser & Neave gained 1.7% to $4.80 after broker DMG started to cover the stock and gave a buy call on the share citing forward earnings potential.

ST Engineering added 0.3% to $3.19 after the company announced that its unit ST Aerospace has got a $1 billion engine maintenance contract from India’s Jet Airways.

Neptune Orient Lines also gained as investors continued to remain optimistic about the container company’s earning prospects due to the improving global trade environment. The stock rose 1.5% to $2.01.

Among decliners, bank and property stocks fell the most on profit-taking. While UOB was down 2.7% at $19.22, OCBC fell 2.3% to $8.71 and DBS slid 1.8% to $14.30.

Property stock CapitaLand fell 2.7% to $3.97, while City Developments lost 2.9% at $10.60. CapitaMalls Asia was 1.3% lower at $2.26.

Singapore Telecommunications dropped 2.8% to $3.17 after Deutsche Bank said in a report that it sees a near-term price weakness in the stock.

Commodity trader Noble Group lost 2.5% to close $3.06 as investors remained cautious about whether the company’s plan to sell Gloucester Coal to Macarthur Coal will succeed. This follows news that Macarthur had received a $3.3 billion takeover offer from US coal company Peabody Energy that is conditional on the Gloucester sale not going ahead.

“We view a failure to offload Noble’s coal assets into Macarthur Coal as negative and will be a bane on the share price,” Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in a report.