LY Corporation, one of Malaysia’s leading manufacturers and exporters of wooden bedroom furniture, made its trading debut on the Catalist today, being the first SGX IPO of 2018. SGX lists three active stocks in the furniture-related businesses with a combined market capitalisation of about S$240 million. They are Courts Asia, Koda Ltd, and Lorenzo International.
Asia’s MedTech (Medical Technology) Sector is expected to become the second largest globally by 2020 (with CAGR of 8%). Singapore is becoming a regional MedTech hub as supportive government policies and the manufacturing sector contribute positively. SGX lists four stocks with MedTech businesses (Clearbridge Health, Techcomp Holdings, Vicplas International and QT Vascular) with a combined market capitalisation of S$413 million. A handful of SGX IT companies have also diversified some of their businesses into MedTech, including Venture Corp.
The 30 constituents of the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) are expected to report their latest quarter or financial year results in the next 2 months. CapitaLand Mall Trust, Keppel Corp, CapitaLand Commercial Trust and Ascendas REIT are expected to release their results this week. The STI has generated a year-to-date total return of 4.89%. The 30 STI constituents averaged Price-to-Earnings (P/E) and Price-to-Book (P/B) ratios of 16x and 2.7x respectively.
Singapore’s largest capitalised stocks of the Healthcare Providers and Services Industry have announced and affirmed several expansion plans in 2017. The majority of these stocks are expanding services in Greater China, South East Asia or at home in Singapore. IHH Healthcare Bhd, Raffles Medical, Health Management Intl, TalkMed and Q&M Dental are the five largest capitalised companies of the Healthcare Providers & Services Industry, and are pursuing regional expansion plans.
RSS Plans provide a means for investors to build gradual STI exposure. Such a monthly plan on an STI ETF from January 2013 to December 2017 would have generated an indicative return rate of 7.1% p.a., excluding transaction fees, as of the 9 January 2018 close. There are currently more than 50,000 active RSS Plans in Singapore. Providers of RSS Plans on the STI ETF and a selection of stocks include Phillip Capital, OCBC Bank, POSB and Maybank Kim Eng.
Singapore’s 10 largest capitalised Health Care stocks have averaged 3.3% price gains for the first five sessions of 2018, following on from average 13.2% gains in 2017. On a market-capitalisation weighted basis, Health Care was the strongest of the Sectors in the last month of 2017. Amongst these 10 stocks, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Q&M Dental Group Singapore and Tianjin Zhong Xin Pharmaceutical have performed the strongest over the past five sessions, averaging 8.3% gains. Clearbridge Health which focuses on precision medicine in Asia, in addition to providing laboratory and Health Care services, listed on 18 December.
Venture Corporation is expected to join the STI effective Friday 5 Jan, with the last trading day of existing STI constituent, Global Logistic Properties, expected to be 4 Jan. Venture was selected as it maintained the highest market capitalisation of the STI Reserve on the 2 Jan close. Venture is expected to make up between 1.5% and 2.0% weightage in the STI, based on public free-float information and STI weights as of 29 Sep 2017. The IT Sector will then be represented within the STI and the Real Estate Sector is expected to reduce its weightage in the STI by 3.0% to 15.6%.
10 January 2018 will mark 10 years since SPH, SGX and FTSE Group revamped the STI as well as the other 18 new indices of the FTSE ST Index Series. This follows 2017 being the 50 year anniversary for the STI and the 15 year anniversary of the listing of the first STI ETF. This year’s STI price performance has been stronger than the long term average annualised gain, which dating back to the end of 1985 is 6.2% p.a. This does not include the STI dividend yield which has averaged 3.5% since 1999.
Singapore’s 20 largest Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure stocks have averaged 20% total returns in the 2017 YTD, with 17 gainers and three decliners. The three largest stocks of the 20 were also the group’s YTD best performers – Genting SP, Shangri-La Asia and Mandarin Oriental. No Signboard and Kimly have joined the 20 largest Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure Industry after listing this year. RE&S Holdings is currently the 22nd largest capitalised stock of the Industry. The debutant trio have averaged 15% total returns.
SGX lists eight Agricultural Products stocks with a combined market capitalisation of S$29 billion. In the 2017 YTD, these stocks averaged a -13.7% price change, compared to +16.7% in 2016. Global Palm Resources Holdings, which registered a price change of +15.4% in the YTD, was the best-performing stock in the sector. Palm oil prices for the rest of 2017 are projected to remain firm, given the seasonally strong fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. A further boost could come from weaker-than-expected output, as well as an anticipated cut in Europe's import tariffs for Indonesia's biodiesel.
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