2:08 PM
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Singapore shares rose slightly on Wednesday, while shares of Noble Group Ltd tumbled after posting weak results for the first quarter.
The Straits Times Index was up just 0.2 percent to 3451.04 points, while the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.1 percent.
Shares of Noble fell as much as 6.3 percent to S$1.045, the lowest since July 2012.
Noble was one of the most actively traded stocks by value on Wednesday. Nearly 57 million shares changed hands, 2.8 times the average full-day volume over the past 30 days.
Noble, a Singapore-listed commodities trader, said its first-quarter net profit fell 62 percent to $41.3 million, attributing the results to a challenging operating environment.
"Poor earnings visibility and level is likely to be a negative driver of stock price in the near-term," said Maybank Kim Eng, which downgraded Noble to "hold" from "buy" and lowered its target price to S$1.17 from S$1.53.
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