• SGX lists more than 700 companies with a combined market cap of nearly US$670 billion, with overseas listings contributing more than 45% to this total market cap. In particular, Southeast Asian-based companies account for more than 20% of SGX’s total market cap.

• SGX has strong links to the different ASEAN markets. It lists over 20 companies which are either headquartered or have their core operations based in Indonesia, and these stocks have a combined market cap of nearly S$20 billion.

• The 5 best-performing Indonesia-based stocks in the YTD were: Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust (+26.4%), QAF (+17.9%), Moya Holdings (+17.1%), Golden Agri-Resources (+16.3%), and Indofood Agri Resources (+15.2%). They averaged a total return of +18.6% in the YTD.

Singapore Exchange lists more than 700 companies with a combined market capitalisation of nearly US$670 billion. Overseas listings comprise more than 45% of this total market capitalisation. In comparison, the proportion of foreign companies listed on other exchanges ranges from over 1% for Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, 5% for the Nasdaq, more than 20% for London Stock Exchange and zero for Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Strong Links to ASEAN

In particular, SGX has strong connectivity to the ASEAN economies – the exchange lists over 40 companies which are either headquartered or have their core operations based in Malaysia, while companies which have Indonesia as their principal place of business number more than 20. Three listings have core operations in Thailand, while another three have operations based in Myanmar, and one has the Philippines as its principal place of business. These Southeast Asian-based companies account for more than 20% of SGX’s total market cap.

Steady Growth Forecast for ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with a population of about 600 million, is the world’s sixth-largest economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of nearly US$3 trillion. It is forecast to be the fourth-largest economy in the world by 2030, after the US, China and the EU, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a speech last August.

According to FocusEconomics, ASEAN expanded 4.8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, marking an uptick from the third quarter’s revised 4.6% expansion. Indonesia, which accounts for over a third of the region’s nominal GDP, registered sturdy growth, supported by both domestic demand and an improvement in the external sector. Government social assistance in the build-up to April’s general elections likely underpinned consumer spending, the research consultancy noted in a report published last month.

SGX’s Indonesia-Based Stocks

More than 20 stocks listed on SGX are either headquartered in Indonesia or have core operations based in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and have a combined market capitalisation of nearly S$20 billion. Their businesses are categorised under the consumer staples, consumer discretionary, real estate, energy, materials and industrials sectors.

Among these Indonesia-based listings, the 5 best performers in the 2019 year-to-date were: Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust (+26.4%), QAF Ltd (+17.9%), Moya Holdings Asia (+17.1%), Golden Agri-Resources (+16.3%), and Indofood Agri Resources (+15.2%). These five stocks have averaged a total return of +18.6% in the YTD, bringing their one-year and three-year total returns to -27.4% and +11.7% respectively. They also average a dividend yield of 4.9%.

The table below details SGX’s 10 best-performing Indonesia-based stocks in the YTD, sorted by YTD total return.

Source: Bloomberg & StockFacts (data as of 22 Feb 2019)
* P/B ratio instead of P/E as more relevant for REITs
^ Annualised distribution yield as provided by LMIRT in its latest results presentation