• Singapore’s biggest Index stocks maintain the highest dividend yield in Asia, with Singapore’s yield of 3.7% ranking as Asia’s highest in the FTSE Country Indices.

• As many as 70% of Singapore’s constituents in the FTSE All-World Index qualify for the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index, compared to the global norm of 40%. While Singapore’s lists a number of REITs with high yields, the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index excludes REITs as constituents.

• Seven of Singapore’s constituents in the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index are also now a part of the One STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend Index and ETF, which launched last week on SGX. These seven stocks have averaged a 13% YTD total return.

Dividend yields show how much a stock has paid out in dividend distributions over the past 12 months relative to the price of its shares, and are a key strength for Singapore. For regional and global comparisons, FTSE Russell maintain and publish monthly a set of country indices using standardised criteria, useful for cross-country comparisons. Within this Index series, the FTSE Singapore Index maintains the highest dividend yield across all of the Asian Indices with a yield of 3.74%. This compares to an average of 2.64% for the entire 10 Asian Indices that span over 1000 stocks.

Index Dividend Yield (%)

Source: FTSE Russell, data as of 31 March 2017

Range of High Yielding Stocks

Last year, Singapore’s higher yielding Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) and Business Trusts paid unit-holders approximately S$5 billion in dividend distributions. The comparatively high dividend yields also extends beyond the REIT Sector. 

This is exemplified by another two FTSE Russell Indices, the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index (which does not include REITs) and the parent the FTSE All-World Index.  In total 40% of the constituents of the FTSE All-World Index currently qualify for the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index. However, 70% of Singapore’s constituents in the FTSE All-World Index qualify for the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index.

The SGX-listed constituents of the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index, not including secondary listings AusNet Services and Yuexiu Property are tabled below.  The table below is sort by market capitalisation, click on the stock name to see its profile page on StockFacts.

FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index - Singapore Primary listings (& Hongkong Land Holdings)

Source: SGX, Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (data as of 7 April 2017).
Note The FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index excludes stocks that are not forecast to pay a dividend in the next 12 months and aims to contain the highest yielding stocks accounting for 50% of the investable market capitalisation of the eligible securities.

Together the above tabled Singapore-listed constituents have averaged a 10.0% total return in the year thus far, compared to 1.8% for the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index.

The highest yielding companies in the table above, based on past distributions, are M1, Starhub, Singapore Telecommunications and Venture Corp, with Singapore Airlines and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) both maintaining the same yield of 4.3%. These companies include all three of Singapore’s mobile telecommunication stocks. 

As noted above, dividend yields are only indicative and based on past distributions. While Starhub is scheduled to pay a 5 cents per share dividend with a 17 April 2017 ex-date for 4QFY16, it recently announced the intention to pay a quarterly cash dividend of 4 cents per share in FY2017. This brings its indicative dividend yield to 6.0% for the next 12 months.

One of the stocks tabled above, SPH, will be releasing its financial results for the Second Quarter/Half-Year ended 28 February 2017 on Wednesday, 12 April 2017.

Beyond the large to mid companies that Singapore contributes to FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index and the parent index, Singapore’s FTSE ST Small Cap Index also maintains a comparative high dividend yield at 5.1%. The five non-REIT constituents within FTSE ST Small Cap Index with the highest indicative dividend yields are UMS Holdings, Del Monte Pacific, Chip Eng Seng Corp, Vibrant Group and Centurion Corp.

New High Dividend ETF

Last week, One Asset Management’s One STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) listed on SGX. As discussed here, One Asset Management is a subsidiary of KGI Thailand, is a leader in the Thai asset management market and one of the primary mutual fund companies in the country. It currently manages US$3 billion in assets.

This ETF tracks the STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend 30 Index, which employs a smart-beta strategy to uncover the top 30 companies from six ASEAN countries based on dividend yield, excluding those with low tradability and poor dividend sustainability. The number of constituents from each country is capped at seven, to avoid any one country dominating the index.

The seven SGX listed stocks that are included in the STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend 30 Index have averaged a 12.8% total return in the year to date. The seven stocks also average a marginally higher indicative dividend yield than the broader group of Singapore primary-listings that make up the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index.

The seven Singapore constituents that are also mutual constituents of the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index are tabled below. The stocks are sort by market capitalisation, click on the stock name to see its profile page on StockFacts.

Singapore Constituents of the STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend 30 Index

Source: SGX, Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (data as of 7 April 2017)

For more information on the One STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend ETF click here. The ETF is classified as an Excluded Investment Product (EIP), which means it is accessible to all investors.