Singapore shares fell 0.5% by midday on Tuesday, tracking lower indexes across Asia on concerns that Ireland’s debt problems may spread to other euro zone countries.

By the lunch break, the Straits Times Index (STI) <.FTSTI> was down 16.32 points at 3,141.89. Total market volume was 803 million shares, up from 628.5 million shares on Monday.

“As we are drawing very close to the year end and the STI has already seen a pretty fantastic run, we’re seeing funds that are already in the money take their profits off the table,” said Carey Wong, an investment analyst at OCBC Investment Research.

“We’re facing worries of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) problems making a comeback, tensions in Korea. Our crystal ball looks quite hazy. Do investors want to take on new positions amid these uncertainties? I doubt so,” he added.