SINGAPORE (Nov 4): Investors appear content to digest recent gains on Singapore shares, especially blue chips, which ended the morning session mostly flat or lower.

The Straits Times Index was down 0.3% at 3,281.93 at 12:57pm (0457 GMT).

Lower liners, on the other hand, were sought after.

Hi-P International, which said after trading hours yesterday that its September quarter earnings swelled to $10.8 million from $3.1 million a year earlier, rose 4.6% to 68.5 cents.

Keppel T&T climbed 3.4% to $1.80. The counter, which was highlighted in The Edge Markets’ “stocks with momentum” column, confirmed it would proceed with plans to list its data centres in Singapore.

Among penny stocks, Charisma Energy was 2.6% higher at 3.9 cents, WE Holdings rose 20% to 1.2 cents and EMS Energy  climbed 7.1% to three cents. All three counters were the most actively traded in the market.

Cosco Corprose 3.3% to 62 cents as a pickup in its 3Q2014 bottom line persuaded traders to take a bet on the shipbuilder despite a slew of earnings downgrades by analysts.

The stock, which sunk to a multi-year low of 57.5 cents on Oct 28, reached a three-week high of 63 in the morning.

At its current price, Cosco is about on par with its latest book value of 60.1 cents a share.