SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Singapore shares were lower at midday on Friday after crude oil topped $124 a barrel,

exacerbating inflation concerns at a time when consumers are already grappling with soaring food prices.

Rising inflation could lead to even slower economic growth and analysts believe the rise in food and oil prices will continue.

Some investors have adopted the 'buy-in-April-sell-in-May-and-go-away' investment strategy

amid continuing uncertainty in the market, said Ong Seng Yeow, research head at Kelive Research, a unit of Kim Eng Securities.

'The general view is that we are still in a period of consolidation in the short term,' said Ong.

At midday, the benchmark Straits Times Index was down 9.07 points or 0.3 percent at 3,162.81.

Decliners outnumbered gainers 311 to 186 with 1,055 stocks unchanged.

There were 854.6 million shares traded valued at S$834.0 million.

Banking shares were mixed, with DBS Group down 0.4 percent to S$19.90, United Overseas Bank off 0.9 percent to S$20.48 while Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. gained 0.1 percent to S$8.86.

Hong Kong-based commodities supplier Noble Group bucked the market trend, soaring 7.5 percent to S$2.73, off a record high of S$2.81, after reporting robust first-quarter results.

The company's net profit nearly quadrupled to $167.09 million, driven by robust global demand for commodities such as iron ore and coal. OCBC lifted its target price for Noble to S$3.30 a share from S$2.54 after raising its 2008 earnings estimate by 37 percent to $409.4 million.

Singapore Airlines dropped 0.3 percent to S$15.48.

Among other blue chips, Singapore Telecom slipped 1.1 percent to S$3.68 and Singapore Exchange fell 2.7 percent to S$8.75.

($1 = S$1.36)

pearl.bantillo@thomson.com

jb/ms

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