Real Estate, Manufacturing and Food & Beverage stocks made up close to half of Singapore’s top 200 stocks by turnover in the first 5 months of 2019. The stocks representing tech–laden Manufacturing were the best performers in 2019 YTD and preceding two years, with F&B the best performer in 2016.
Distinct drivers of the three sectors included interest rate outlooks and property prices for Real Estate, technological advancements, value chain integration and global trade for Manufacturing while incomes, tastes, preferences and tourism drove Food & Beverage sales.
Real estate stocks showed the most consistency in returns, with the least standard deviation amongst the individual stock performances, followed by food & beverage stocks, with the individual manufacturing stocks showing the most performance deviation in past years.
Returns amongst the relevant 23 manufacturing stocks have been more constant in the 2019 YTD, with the 18% average total return generated by 19 gainers and four decliners, and a median total return of 19%. Hi-P Int, Frencken & Sunpower led the manufacturers over the 23 weeks.
As 2019 rapidly approaches the halftime mark of 30 June, clear drivers of investor sentiment in the year thus far have included concerns of global growth deceleration at home and abroad, resumption of trade frictions amongst the world’s two largest economies in early May, and a more dovish outlook for US interest rates.
In Singapore, the Straits Times index (“STI”) has generated a total return of 6.8% in the 2019 year-to-date, in-line with the FTSE ASEAN All Share Index which has gained 7.4%.
Looking beyond the STI, the 200 most actively traded stocks have generated an average total return of 8.0%. This does not include the average total returns of RHT Health Trust, Memtech International and Indofood Agri Resources which averaged 89.2% gains on premium cash offers for these businesses.
60 Real Estate Stocks Amongst Top 200 Stocks by Turnover
Singapore’s strong property and infrastructure fundamentals have provided beachheads for Singapore’s listed Real Estate Sector. For the first 5 months of 2019, the 60 Real Estate stocks amongst the 200 most active traded stocks by turnover accounted for the most day-to-day market turnover, which was followed by Financial Services. As discussed recently (see SGX Market Update: 5 Property Acquisitions Expected to Boost S-REIT Yields) this year Singapore REITs have attracted investment flows from global funds which has included private equity funds.
The 23 manufacturing stocks that were amongst the 200 stocks by turnover accounted for the most day-to-day turnover after the 11 financial services stocks. After Real Estate’s 60 stocks, the 23 manufacturing stocks led by the likes of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Venture Corporation and Singapore Tech Engineering, contributed the next most number of stocks in the top 200 by turnover. Note these manufacturing stocks do not include Food Manufacturers or Processors, and span diverse business from advanced electronics to healthcare products.
With Food and Beverage (“F&B”) contributing 14 stocks to the top 200 by turnover, and the next highest number of stocks after Manufacturing, the three sectors of Real Estate, Manufacturing and F&B together made up 97 stocks. This was close to half the top 200 stocks by turnover. The average total returns of the three genres of stocks over recent years are illustrated in the chart below.
The average total returns illustrated above were built on various levels of consistency across the performances of each of the Sector’s stocks. For instance, the 60 real estate stocks showed the most consistency, with the least standard deviation amongst the individual stock performances in all four time periods.
This was followed by F&B, which saw more consistency in the performances across its relevant 14 stocks than Manufacturing over the past three years ending 2018. As noted above, Singapore manufacturing stocks span a wide range of industries, with the diversification exponentiated by the geographical reach of these businesses. This was a contributing factor to the individual manufacturing stocks showing the most performance deviation over the preceding three years. However, in the 2019 year to date, performances across manufacturing stocks have seen marginally less deviation than the F&B stocks.
The comparative performances of the relevant stocks are tabled below, with each table sorted by stocks with the most turnover over the first five months of 2019. The 60 real estate stocks maintain a combined market capitalisation of S$175 billion, the 23 manufacturing stocks maintain a total market capitalisation of S$35 billion and the 14 F&B stocks maintain a total market capitalisation of S$60 billion. Note the designated F&B stocks do not include Palm Oil producers.
| Real Estate | Stock Code | 2016 Total Return % |
2017 Total Return % |
2018 Total Return % |
2019 to 11 June Total Return % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCENDAS REAL ESTATE INV TRT | A17U | 4.6 | 27.4 | 0.3 | 18.7 |
| CAPITALAND | C31 | -7.2 | 20.1 | -9.0 | 13.4 |
| CAPITALAND COMMERCIAL TRUST | C61U | 16.6 | 42.1 | -5.0 | 19.3 |
| CAPITALAND MALL TRUST | C38U | 3.0 | 19.5 | 12.7 | 16.3 |
| MAPLETREE LOGISTICS TRUST | M44U | 10.8 | 38.7 | 1.5 | 24.9 |
| HONGKONG LAND HOLDINGS | H78 | -4.8 | 5.5 | -6.1 | 10.8 |
| CITY DEVELOPMENTS | C09 | 10.3 | 53.1 | -33.8 | 12.9 |
| SUNTEC REIT | T82U | 13.2 | 37.6 | -12.8 | 9.5 |
| MAPLETREE COMMERCIAL TRUST | N2IU | 14.9 | 23.0 | 7.6 | 25.5 |
| UOL GROUP | U14 | -1.5 | 51.2 | -28.8 | 18.7 |
| MAPLETREE NORTH ASIA COMMERC | RW0U | 11.7 | 38.3 | -1.1 | 22.9 |
| KEPPEL REIT | K71U | 17.0 | 30.1 | -5.2 | 11.3 |
| MAPLETREE INDUSTRIAL TRUST | ME8U | 15.8 | 32.2 | -0.7 | 15.5 |
| FRASERS LOGISTICS & INDUSTRI | BUOU | 0.0 | 34.0 | -4.2 | 19.1 |
| KEPPEL DC REIT | AJBU | 26.1 | 27.0 | -0.7 | 24.6 |
| FRASERS CENTREPOINT TRUST | J69U | 9.1 | 24.8 | 2.2 | 20.3 |
| ASCOTT RESIDENCE TRUST | A68U | 2.4 | 20.2 | -6.1 | 22.6 |
| FRASERS COMMERCIAL TRUST | ND8U | 7.0 | 27.1 | -1.7 | 17.7 |
| CDL HOSPITALITY TRUSTS | J85 | 8.7 | 39.9 | -8.6 | 13.6 |
| YANLORD LAND GROUP | Z25 | 33.1 | 25.6 | -21.6 | 7.9 |
| CAPITALAND RETAIL CHINA TRUS | AU8U | -1.0 | 29.4 | -12.5 | 16.3 |
| ESR-REIT | J91U | 3.6 | 12.0 | -1.8 | 12.7 |
| CROMWELL EUROPEAN REIT | CNNU | 0.0 | 0.0 | -13.3 | 16.0 |
| STARHILL GLOBAL REIT | P40U | 4.7 | 11.6 | -6.5 | 13.7 |
| YING LI INTERNATIONAL REAL E | 5DM | -10.2 | 1.3 | -23.2 | 20.7 |
| CACHE LOGISTICS TRUST | K2LU | -3.5 | 19.0 | -12.2 | 12.4 |
| FAR EAST HOSPITALITY TRUST | Q5T | -3.1 | 27.9 | -10.8 | 9.8 |
| MANULIFE US REAL ESTATE INV | BTOU | 0.0 | 18.3 | -7.2 | 18.5 |
| ASCENDAS INDIA TRUST | CY6U | 23.3 | 19.1 | 0.2 | 27.7 |
| OUE HOSPITALITY TRUST | SK7 | -1.1 | 38.2 | -16.0 | 6.6 |
| SASSEUR REAL ESTATE INVESTME | CRPU | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 31.7 |
| OXLEY HOLDINGS | 5UX | 1.0 | 71.9 | -44.7 | 8.0 |
| SPH REIT | SK6U | 5.4 | 16.8 | 0.6 | 7.8 |
| APAC REALTY | CLN | 0.0 | 0.0 | -46.4 | 27.8 |
| HONG FOK CORP | H30 | -2.4 | 38.2 | -19.9 | 23.9 |
| ASCENDAS HOSPITALITY TRUST | Q1P | 2.9 | 30.8 | -3.6 | 25.8 |
| LIPPO MALLS INDONESIA RETAIL | D5IU | 27.3 | 17.5 | -50.6 | 28.6 |
| WING TAI HOLDINGS | W05 | -6.1 | 47.1 | -11.8 | 5.2 |
| KEPPEL-KBS US REIT | CMOU | 0.0 | 0.0 | -23.9 | 28.3 |
| FRASERS HOSPITALITY TRUST | ACV | -1.8 | 29.3 | -4.7 | 4.6 |
| AIMS APAC REIT | O5RU | 3.4 | 13.5 | 3.9 | 10.1 |
| ACCORDIA GOLF TRUST | ADQU | 31.0 | 17.0 | -21.1 | 11.1 |
| OUE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE I | TS0U | 14.6 | 11.0 | -22.6 | 9.3 |
| SOILBUILD BUSINESS SPACE REI | SV3U | -8.7 | 14.2 | -6.2 | 8.9 |
| OUE | LJ3 | 0.5 | 8.2 | -22.2 | 12.2 |
| FRASERS PROPERTY | TQ5 | -1.2 | 39.0 | -17.4 | 15.1 |
| SABANA SHARIAH COMP IND REIT | M1GU | -33.5 | 12.2 | 6.8 | 18.2 |
| TUAN SING HOLDINGS | T24 | -10.6 | 60.8 | -18.9 | 2.3 |
| GUOCOLAND | F17 | 4.4 | 28.1 | -16.3 | 10.0 |
| EC WORLD REIT | BWCU | 0.0 | 8.0 | -1.2 | 16.1 |
| DASIN RETAIL TRUST | CEDU | 0.0 | 0.0 | 7.3 | 5.4 |
| BUKIT SEMBAWANG ESTATES | B61 | 6.7 | 47.1 | -7.0 | -1.4 |
| IREIT GLOBAL | UD1U | 12.9 | 17.3 | 0.8 | 8.1 |
| HO BEE LAND | H13 | 3.8 | 24.3 | 0.1 | 4.5 |
| PROPNEX | OYY | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 18.2 |
| UNITED INDUSTRIAL CORP | U06 | -2.8 | 20.6 | -16.8 | 8.9 |
| FORTUNE REIT | F25U | 17.5 | 8.0 | -0.4 | 23.6 |
| BOUSTEAD SINGAPORE | F9D | -0.6 | 9.8 | -3.4 | -2.5 |
| SINGHAIYI GROUP | 5H0 | -13.4 | 30.7 | -22.5 | 11.8 |
| CENTURION CORP | OU8 | -10.7 | 65.9 | -16.5 | 1.1 |
| Average: | 4.1 | 24.7 | -10.0 | 14.7 |
| Manufacturing | Stock Code | 2016 Total Return % |
2017 Total Return % |
2018 Total Return % |
2019 to 11 June Total Return % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YANGZIJIANG SHIPBUILDING | BS6 | -22.3 | 86.3 | -11.4 | 19.2 |
| VENTURE CORP | V03 | 28.0 | 115.4 | -29.1 | 19.1 |
| SINGAPORE TECH ENGINEERING | S63 | 12.3 | 5.0 | 11.8 | 20.3 |
| AEM HOLDINGS | AWX | 195.3 | 498.6 | 1.5 | 22.4 |
| SEMBCORP MARINE | S51 | -19.3 | 34.9 | -15.9 | -1.9 |
| HI-P INTERNATIONAL | H17 | 4.6 | 326.5 | -50.8 | 57.1 |
| VALUETRONICS HOLDINGS | BN2 | 34.3 | 103.5 | -22.8 | -2.3 |
| SUNPOWER GROUP | 5GD | 57.4 | -11.6 | -27.6 | 53.0 |
| CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY | C76 | -11.9 | 10.9 | 254.2 | 0.5 |
| FRENCKEN GROUP | E28 | 30.3 | 132.4 | -18.9 | 53.9 |
| HAW PAR CORP | H02 | 14.9 | 27.2 | 7.9 | 18.8 |
| SUNNINGDALE TECH | BHQ | 22.4 | 83.6 | -21.9 | -2.8 |
| FU YU CORP | F13 | 27.2 | 6.6 | 10.1 | 13.2 |
| SARINE TECHNOLOGIES | U77 | 20.9 | -42.4 | -52.0 | -29.2 |
| RIVERSTONE HOLDINGS | AP4 | -25.0 | 25.6 | 7.9 | -17.9 |
| INNOTEK | M14 | 48.6 | 32.7 | 18.3 | 30.0 |
| MANUFACTURING INTEGRATION TE | M11 | -25.7 | 48.3 | 18.1 | 22.0 |
| CHUAN HUP HOLDINGS | C33 | -15.7 | 37.5 | -3.7 | 32.1 |
| JEP HOLDINGS | 1J4 | -31.0 | 86.2 | -3.6 | 12.6 |
| HANWELL HOLDINGS | DM0 | -9.4 | 31.3 | -43.6 | 41.5 |
| MIYOSHI | M03 | 19.0 | 62.8 | -39.6 | 4.9 |
| AVARGA | U09 | 64.7 | 1.8 | -23.4 | 20.7 |
| HALCYON AGRI CORP | 5VJ | -8.3 | -5.7 | -29.8 | 24.4 |
| Average: | 17.9 | 73.8 | -2.8 | 17.9 |
| F & B | Stock Code | 2016 Total Return % |
2017 Total Return % |
2018 Total Return % |
2019 to 11 June Total Return % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| THAI BEVERAGE PCL | Y92 | 27.2 | 11.3 | -31.7 | 40.8 |
| WILMAR INTERNATIONAL | F34 | 25.0 | -12.1 | 4.3 | 10.8 |
| SATS | S58 | 30.9 | 10.9 | -7.2 | 8.2 |
| JAPFA | UD2 | 94.0 | -42.8 | 44.6 | -19.6 |
| OLAM INTERNATIONAL | O32 | 12.2 | 6.5 | -15.9 | 15.7 |
| KOUFU GROUP | VL6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 14.8 |
| SINO GRANDNESS FOOD INDUSTRY | T4B | -33.8 | -8.9 | -38.2 | -61.0 |
| DELFI | P34 | 12.0 | -35.1 | -5.3 | -6.8 |
| QAF | Q01 | 37.8 | -16.4 | -45.0 | 36.5 |
| JUMBO GROUP | 42R | 49.4 | -9.6 | -31.4 | 1.7 |
| FRASER AND NEAVE | F99 | 2.8 | 26.0 | -32.1 | 4.4 |
| BREADTALK GROUP | CTN | 5.4 | 52.1 | -1.6 | -2.5 |
| JB FOODS | BEW | 32.0 | 69.2 | 38.7 | 11.3 |
| KIMLY | 1D0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -30.6 | 2.8 |
| Average: | 21.1 | 3.7 | -10.8 | 4.1 |
Source: SGX StockFacts, Bloomberg (Data as of 11 June 2019). Note TR = Total Return which assumes dividends are reinvested.
Distinct drivers of the three sectors included interest rate outlooks and property prices for real estate, technological advancements, value chain integration and global trade for manufacturing while incomes, tastes, preferences and tourism drive F&B sales.
