• Singapore’s 21 most traded non-STI stocks in the 2021 year-to-date have traded S$220 million in turnover a day, 15% of the total turnover of all stocks and trusts listed on SGX. Key contributors to trading activity included stock capitalisation, previous earnings reports, and economic drivers, namely semiconductor demand and defensive COVID-19 traits.

• The 21 stocks averaged 27% gains (13% median gains) on multiple outlier performances. Thomson Medical, iFAST Holdings & ISDN Holdings led the 21 stocks in the year-to-date. Thomson Medical reported y-o-y turnaround profit for its 1HFY21 (end 31 Dec), while for FY20 (end 31 Dec), iFAST reported more than 100% y-o-y net profit growth, and ISDN Holdings reported more than 100% y-o-y growth in profit attributable to shareholders.

• The 5 of the 21 non-STI stocks recipient to the highest net institutional and Proprietary trading flows were Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Sembcorp Marine, Thomson Medical, UMS Holdings and iFAST Corporation. With combined inflows of S$212 million, the 5 stocks averaged 8% gains over the first 6 sessions of April, bringing their 2021 year-to-date average total return to 71%.

The Straits Times Index (“STI”) has performed comparatively strongly in the 2021 year to 9 April, with a 12.5% total return, ranking the benchmark Asia Pacific’s second best performer over the first 14 weeks of the year, after the Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Index.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s 21 most traded stocks outside of the STI that span 8 Sectors, have on average kept pace with the benchmark, generating a median 12.5% total return, with the average total return at 27.3%. Together with 29 of the 30 STI stocks, these 21 stocks comprise Singapore’s 50 most traded stocks in the 2021 year to 9 April. All 21 non-STI stocks saw more trading turnover than the least traded STI stock over the period.

^{^*} Note SGX has told Oceanus that it will have to meet the Financial Watchlist Exit Criteria by 15 April 2021 or be delisted. If it is delisted, the company is to provide an exit offer that is fair and reasonable.
Sourced by SGX, Refinitiv & Bloomberg (Data as of 9 April 2021).

There were multiple contributors to the trading activity across these 21 stocks over the past 14 weeks.

Multiple stocks logically attract a high level of turnover as they maintain a comparative high level of market capitalisation.

All 5 stocks of the STI Reserve List are among the 21 stocks -

• Frasers Logistic & Commercial Trust,
• Suntec REIT,
• Keppel REIT,
• Frasers Centrepoint Trust and
• NetLink NBN Trust.

Frasers Logistic & Commercial Trust is scheduled to join the STI effective tomorrow, with Jardine Strategic deleted from the Index, assuming the Jardine Matheson Holdings' proposal to acquire the 15% of Jardine Strategic Holdings share capital that it does not already own is approved during tonight’s Special General Meeting.

Unlike Jardine Matheson, which has added exposure to Jardine Motors and Jardine Pacific, Jardine Strategic's revenue exposures are all replicable through the other public listings of the group.

Frasers Logistic & Commercial Trust’s portfolio comprises 100 properties that span industrial and commercial real estates, a portfolio value of approximately $6.2 billion, with the properties diversified across five developed countries - Australia, Germany, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. However, the key reason Frasers Logistic & Commercial Trust is joining the STI is because of its market capitalisation of S$5 billion, which is attributed to the merger of Frasers Logistics and Industrial Trust and Frasers Commercial Trust which was completed a year ago in April 2020.

Thomson Medical Group led the 21 stocks in 2021 to 9 April stock performance, and reported 1HFY20 (ended 31 Dec) profit growth back in February. The next two best performers among the 21 stocks over the past 14 weeks, iFAST Corporation and ISDN Holdings, also reported FY20 (ended 31 Dec) profit growth, back in February and March.

On 8 February, Thomson Medical Group reported the Group’s Adjusted EBITDA recorded a 32.6% increase to S$31.8 million, compared to S$24.0 million in the same period last year, attributed to grants received via support schemes and initiatives from the Singapore government to help employers through the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to lower interest rates and the absence of the real property gain tax rate in Malaysia, Thomson Medical Group recorded a net profit after tax of S$9.7 million for its 1HFY21 (ended 31 Dec), compared to a loss of S$1.0 million in the same period last year (excluding COVID-19 related grants from the Singapore government, the Group remained profitable recording a net profit after tax of S$4.5 million), click here for more.

On 5 February, iFAST Corporation reported its FY20 (ended 31 Dec) net profit grew 122.3% y-o-y to S$21.15 million, on the back of 31.7% y-o-y increase in net revenue and 35.5% y-o-y growth in gross revenue, click here for more.

On 1 March, ISDN Holdings reported its Group revenue for FY20 (ended 31 Dec) surged by 24.4% y-o-y to S$361.9 million, with robust demand across all geographies. As a result of growth in both sales and productivity, profit attributable to shareholders rose by 114.8% to S$15.1 million for FY20, click here for more.

Economic drivers have included demand for semiconductors in addition to some rotation to medical suppliers in early January and April.

This week will provide much insight into the pace and trajectory of the economic rebound in Singapore. On Wednesday both the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) will release its semi-annual Monetary Policy Statement, at the same time Singapore’s advance GDP estimates for 1Q21 which are expected to see the a narrower y-o-y loss, in addition to a slower sequential, q-o-q gain. GDP has been recently supported by manufacturing growth which has now registered four consecutive months of month-on-month gains. Demand for semiconductors in 1Q21 has seen AEM Holdings generate a 19.1% gain in the 2021 year to 9 April, while UMS Holdings has added 28.7% and Nanofilm Technologies has gained 16.6%.

There were no surprises in the FOMC meetings last week that the path of US economy would depend significantly on the course of the virus, including progress on vaccinations. While the IMF did provide an upward revision to 2021 global growth estimates, it maintained much still depends on the race between the virus and vaccines. This is where markets have turned more cautious in early April. Top Glove Corporation, Medtecs International and Riverstone Holdings, which rank among the 21 most traded non-STI stocks averaged 8.6% gains over the first 6 sessions of April.

Topline statistics show that as of 11 April, there have been 774 million vaccinations administered around the globe, as compared to 136 million confirmed cases. However, since Mid-March, daily global cases have been gradually reversing that downtrend observed over the first six weeks of 2021.

• On 8 April, new confirmed cases reached more than 100 cases per 1 million people, returning to levels seen in early January, and more than doubled the less than 40 cases per 1 million people observed on 8 March.
• On 11 April new confirmed cases fell back to 67 cases per 1 million people.

As the International Monetary Fund inferred we can see the finish line, however as US President Biden remarked last week, the world is not at the finish line yet.