Temasek Holdings, the Singapore state investment agency, is likely to report a fall of about 30 per cent in the value of its portfolio for the year to April, mainly caused by sliding share prices for the Singapore companies it controls, the city-state’s finance minister told parliament on Thursday.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, whose ministry is the sole Temasek shareholder, made the statement in defence of Temasek’s recent decision to dispose of its 3 per cent stake in Bank of America, which has triggered a public outcry about the performance of the sovereign wealth fund.