Singapore shares rose slightly on Wednesday, while shares of Noble Group tumbled after posting weak results for the first quarter.

The Straits Times Index was up just 0.2% to 3451.04 points, while the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.1%.

Shares of Noble fell as much as 6.3% to $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% to US$41.3 million ($51.4 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 $1.17 from $1.53.