In September, the STI edged 0.4% higher with dividends marginally improving the total return to 0.5%. This brought the STI’s total return for the first nine months of 2019 to 5.3%, while the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index almost doubled the STI’s gains with an 11.3% total return.
For the month of September, 23 primary-listed SGX stocks repurchased more than 30 million shares with a total consideration of S$15 million. This was down from S$70 million in August and down from S$94 million in Sept 2018.
September buyback consideration was led by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Stamford Land Corporation, Singapore Press Holdings, ST Engineering and Global Investments. Seven stocks initiated new buyback mandates.
Total share buyback consideration for month of September 2019 totaled S$14.9 million, the lowest consideration value for a month since December 2016. The month’s buyback was down from S$70.1 million in August and down from S$94 million in September 2018. There were 23 SGX primary-listed stocks that reported buybacks of their SGX-listings over the month, buying back a total of 49.7 million shares.
Volatility gauges of the Straits Times Index (“STI”) that take into consideration the last 180 and 250 trading days have continued to trend lower since January. The 180 day historical volatility gauge for the STI has declined from 13.8% in December 2018 to 10.1% yesterday. Select stocks have also seen short-term volatility gauges decline, such as Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp seeing its 30 day historical volatility back at October 2017 levels.
Last month, the STI edged 0.4% higher with dividend distributions from Venture Corporation and Genting Singapore marginally improving the STI total return to 0.5%. This brought the STI’s total return for the first nine months of 2019 to 5.3%. By comparison the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index generated an 11.3% total return, with the iEdge S-REIT Index generating a 25.9% total return over the nine months.
Source: SGX My Gateway (Data as of 30 Sept 2019)
Summary of Share Buyback Considerations in September 2019
The table below summarises the buyback considerations in September 2019. The table is sorted by the value of the total consideration amount for the month, which combines the amount of shares or units purchased and the purchasing price of the transactions.
| Stocks | Number of Shares/units Authorised for Purchase in Current Mandate |
Total Number of Shares/units Purchased in Sep 2019 |
Total Buyback Consideration in Sep 2019 (including stamp duties, clearing changes etc.) paid or payable for the shares S$ |
Cumulative Number of Shares/units purchased in Mandate to date * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YANGZIJIANG SHIPBUILDING (HOLDINGS) | 394,576,520 | 5,000,000 | $4,670,740 | 25,000,000 |
| STAMFORD LAND CORPORATION | 81,973,408 | 4,062,800 | $1,965,093 | 19,773,600 |
| SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS | 159,698,243 | 939,500 | $1,829,054 | 3,515,800 |
| SINGAPORE TECHNOLOGIES ENGINEERING | 62,432,801 | 400,000 | $1,555,995 | 3,670,700 |
| GLOBAL INVESTMENTS | 168,741,864 | 10,949,000 | $1,493,282 | 48,747,200 |
| SINGAPORE SHIPPING CORPORATION | 42,417,689 | 2,809,000 | $818,461 | 7,364,800 |
| REX INTERNATIONAL HOLDING | 129,122,045 | 7,459,700 | $588,517 | 13,187,000 |
| CHINA SUNSINE CHEMICAL HOLDINGS | 49,131,170 | 508,000 | $510,541 | 3,087,000 |
| HEALTHWAY MEDICAL CORPORATION | 226,439,605 | 14,066,700 | $348,427 | 14,066,700 |
| BREADTALK GROUP | 56,376,234 | 495,000 | $312,402 | 495,000 |
| HRNETGROUP | 100,581,957 | 280,000 | $163,392 | 502,000 |
| CDW HOLDING | 22,724,200 | 645,500 | $124,075 | 3,382,500 |
| CHEUNG WOH TECHNOLOGIES | 30,189,290 | 743,700 | $109,334 | 1,780,300 |
| FOOD EMPIRE HOLDINGS | 53,426,699 | 200,000 | $100,812 | 200,000 |
| JAPFA | 186,466,879 | 167,800 | $76,784 | 1,330,500 |
| STARBURST HOLDINGS | 12,114,546 | 166,600 | $61,825 | 166,600 |
| TUAN SING HOLDINGS | 118,620,496 | 175,000 | $58,851 | 3,705,000 |
| HONG FOK CORPORATION | 86,147,124 | 62,100 | $52,638 | 2,355,300 |
| EUROSPORTS GLOBAL | 26,220,160 | 230,000 | $43,300 | 230,000 |
| STRACO CORPORATION | 86,411,428 | 38,300 | $28,862 | 100,800 |
| SINGHAIYI GROUP | 421,905,217 | 310,000 | $27,505 | 310,000 |
| GRP | 19,370,161 | 20,000 | $3,545 | 1,857,200 |
| ANCHUN INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS | 5,008,260 | 2,700 | $583 | 2,700 |
| Total | 49,731,400 | $14,944,019 |
Percentage of company’s issued shares excluding treasury shares as at the date of the share buyback resolutions.
Source: SGX My Gateway (Data as of 30 September 2019)
Share buyback transactions involve share issuers repurchasing some of their outstanding shares from shareholders through the open market. Once the shares are bought back, they will be converted into treasury shares, which means they are no longer categorised as shares outstanding. Motivations for share buybacks can include employee compensation plans (such as share option schemes or employee share purchase plans) or long term capital management.
The date of the relevant share buyback mandate is also provided in the table above, in addition to the amount of shares authorised to be bought back under the mandate. The total number of shares purchased under the mandate and the percentage of the companies that issued shares that have been repurchased under the mandate are also provided.
Share buyback information can be found on the company disclosure page on the SGX website, using the Announcement category and sub-category of Share Buy Back-On Market. As best practice, companies should refrain from buying back their shares during the two weeks immediately before its quarterly financial statements and one month immediately before the full-year financial statements.
