Living in Singapore, it’s unthinkable not to have internet access. While majority of us already have access to internet via our mobile phones as well as in the office, we still have to subscribe for a home broadband that provides unlimited usage for everyone in our household. Read Also: [Cheatsheet] The Best SIM-Only Plans in Singapore (2019 Edition) When it comes to choosing the best broadband plan for our home, there are six main players in the market. No. Internet Service Provider (ISP) 1 M1 2 MyRepublic 3 SingTel 4 StarHub 5 ViewQwest 6 WhizComms   When applying for a home broadband service, there are two types of fees that you may be charged, outside of what the internet service provider charges: What Is The NLT Service Activation Fee? We have to pay $56.71 fo

No.  Counters No. of Shares Market Price (SGD) Total Value (SGD) based on market price Allocation % 1. Vicom   31,300 6.59 206,267.00 23.0% 2. Netlink Trust 236,000 0.83 195,880.00 21.0% 3. Far East Hospitality Trust     3,000 0.64     1,920.00   1.0% 4. Ho Bee Land        300 2.36        708.00   0.1% 5. Warchest    513,510.00 55.0% Total 918,285.00 100% Sell in May and go away.This month has been a brutal month as we see increased risk volatility in the market due to the US-China trade war, which pushed most major indexes and s

With an increasing number of large-cap S-REITs trading at or approaching relatively unattractive yield and price-to-book value, DBS suggests investors to look towards alternative dividend plays. Here are five companies that DBS has identified that fit along this theme. Investors Takeaway: 5 Alternative Dividend Plays Frasers Property: Best Dividend Play Among Developers Among developers, Frasers Property offers the highest dividend yield of five percent. This is coupled with an attractive 0.7 times price per NAV for Frasers Property. Its strong recurring income profile as a landlord in the commercial space that is strengthened by its recent catalysts: Acquisition of PGIM Real Estate Asia Retail Fund, news on interested parties to acquire its newly completed Frasers Tower, and the latest

1. SPH REIT  --  5th Apr 20192. SPH  --  9th Apr 20193. First REIT  --  10th Apr 20194. Kep Infra Trust  --  15th Apr 20195. Kep DC Reit  --  15th Apr 20196. Kep-KBS US Reit  --  16th Apr 20197. Kep Reit  --  17th Apr 20198. Soilbuild REIT  --  17th Apr 20199. Kep Corp  --  18th Apr 201910. CapitaComm Trust  --  18th Apr 201911. MapletreeInd Trust  --  22nd Apr 201912. MapletreeCom Trust  --  23rd Apr 201913. FrasersCom Trust  --  23rd Apr 201914. Suntec Reit  --  24th Apr 201915. CapitaMall Trust -- 24th Apr 201916. Frasers Cpt Trust  --  24th Apr 201917. CapitaR China Trust  --  24th Apr 201918. SGX  --  25th Apr 201919.

NetLink NBN Trust (SGX: CJLU) reported an admirable set of earnings and declared a higher-than-projected distribution to unitholders. Here are eight things investors might be interested to know.

With all the earnings announcement finally done and underway (Netlink was the last to report yesterday), it's my favorite time of the year where I get to tally the amount of dividends I will be receiving this quarter.Please do note that this 2nd quarter covered the period of the dividend cashflow from the period 1st April 2019 to 30 June 2019.For readers who are new to this blog, this is a sequence of exercise that I've been doing for the past few years usually after the earnings season ended. This tracking not only allows me to keep abreast of any development in the payout dates and the quantum amount but also more importantly reminds me of how far I’ve come since I embarked on this journey of dividend investing which is coming to almost a decade now. Since we are a household

Over the weekend, Trump threatened to blow up trade war unless a breakthrough on trade talks were reached by the end the week. The uncertainties arising from the trade relations between the world’s two largest economies reminded investors to be cautious as we move into 2H19. Investors Takeaway: 2 Stocks To Strengthen Your Portfolio’s Defence By DBS In view of a potential trade blow out, it is important that investors continue enhance their portfolio defensiveness. In light of which, DBS is finding value in the telecom sector and here are two stocks that we think can add to investors’ portfolio defensiveness. Singtel: All Signs Point To A Sound Value Investment After two successive years of earnings decline, DBS believes that Singtel is now in a good position to start reaping rewar

Investors must be wondering if NetLink NBN Trust would do an Asian Pay TV Trust (APTT) or Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Trust. Both the unit prices of APTT and HPH suffered catastrophic meltdowns in recent years due to declining business fundamentals. Incidentally, Temasek Holdings is a major shareholder in all the three trusts. Even though both APTT and HPH Trust are favoured by investors for their high yields, the plunge in their unit prices would have offset the returns. Thus, the important lesson for NetLink NBN Trust investors is never judge a trust by its yield. Always make the effort to understand the business fundamentals when investing in equities. While big boys like Temasek Holdings can afford to lose monies in their investments, retail investors surely don’t have such deep po

Earlier this month, the US Federal Reserve came to a decision to maintain a larger balance sheet relative to the pre-2008 crisis period. This decision to end quantitative tightening came earlier after much internal deliberation. Revising Balance Sheet Normalisation Principles The Fed also announced the revision and replacement of its balance sheet normalisation principles. It will cease downsizing its balance sheet starting from October 2019. It will focus on holding treasury securities while its holdings of mortgage-backed securities gradually run-off to zero. Starting from October 2019, principal repayments received from mortgage-backed securities would be reinvested in treasury securities, subject to a maximum of US$20 billion per month. The Fed Slamming Brakes On Interest Rate Hike In

In the first quarter of 2019, local benchmark Straits Times Index ended flat as investors juggled between worries about higher US recession risks and the impending outcome of the US-China trade talks. The only bright spot was the S-REIT sector as it outperformed on the Fed’s dovish interest rate hike forecast. The slowdown in hike came from lower GDP growth expectations and rising unemployment, leading to the inversion of US yield curve to heighten recession fears. According to DBS, here are three investment strategies for you to jumpstart your portfolio. Investors Takeaway: 3 Investment Strategies To Jumpstart Your Portfolio By DBS Strategy 1: ‘Peak’ Interest Rate, Uncertain Growth Environment Calls For Greater Focus On Yield/Defensive Stocks According to the Fed’s dot plot, they

No.  Counters No. of Shares Market Price (SGD) Total Value (SGD) based on market price Allocation % 1. Starhill Reit 377,000 0.755 284,635.00 30.0% 2. Vicom   31,300 6.79 212,527.00 23.0% 3. Netlink Trust 236,000 0.835 197,060.00 21.0% 4. First Reit 152,000 0.98 148,994.00 17.0% 5. The Hour Glass 106,900 0.80   85,520.00   9.0% 6. Far East Hospitality Trust     3,000 0.67     2,010.00   1.0% 7. Ho Bee Land        300 2.53        759.00   1.0% 8. Warchest     1,000     1

With the earnings season over, we will summarize the ups and downs of every REIT/ investment trust and rate their financial performance in this six-part series. To begin the series, here are four of the most disappointing trusts that let investors down in the latest quarter. Investors Takeaway: 4 REITs/ Investment Trusts That Let Investors Down This Quarter OUE Hospitality Trust With the absence of income support for Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, OUE Hospitality Trust saw its DPU decline by 2.9 percent year-on-year. That being said, the hotel was still receiving minimum rent from its master lessee in FY18 and improving its operational performance. With the ongoing ramp-up of Terminal 4 as well as opening of Jewel Changi Airport in 1H19, CIMB believes that Crowne Plaza Changi Airport will

Singapore investors are always looking for high-dividend stocks to invest in. While it may look lucrative to invest in companies with high dividends, we should also think about it from a risk standpoint – any investment that pays a higher return also tends to have higher risk. Finding companies that pay high dividends may also be time consuming, or we may get outdated or even bad advice from family, friends and even online sources that cannot be trusted. To get started on finding these companies on our own, and looking into its fundamentals more, we can use SGX’s stock screener, StockFacts. Read Also: StockFacts: All The Latest News & Financials You Need To Know Before Investing In SGX Stocks Using SGX StockFacts To Find The Companies With The Best Dividends In this article, we use

No.  Counters No. of Shares Market Price (SGD) Total Value (SGD) based on market price Allocation % 1. Starhill Reit 377,000 0.70 263,900.00 29.0% 2. Vicom   31,300 6.48 202,824.00 22.0% 3. Netlink Trust 236,000 0.795 187,620.00 21.0% 4. First Reit 152,000 0.995 151,240.00 17.0% 5. Manulife Reit   81,000 US$0.85   92,759.00 11.0% 6. Hobee Land        300 2.51        753.00   1.0% 7. Warchest     1,000     1,000.00   1.0% Total 900,096.00 100% Earnings season is finally over so we are back to this muted season where the share price is just gyrating along with the overall trend of the market.I've ma

After ending 2018 on a bad note, the performance of the stock market in the first two months of 2019 has gave investors a reason to cheer. If you are looking to repeat the splendid performance, here are some strategies for you to consider. Investors Takeaway: 3 Strategies If You Want To Beat The Market Again By DBS Take Advantage Of Interest In S-REITs With Fed Chairman Powell re-iterating the Fed’s dovish stance to be patient on rate hikes, interest in REITs should sustain going forward. The consensus now appears to be zero rate hikes for this year as the Fed continues to monitor how the economy evolves. Previously, DBS recommended investors to focus on large cap REITs in resilient segments such as retail and industrial (warehouse and business parks). DBS likes these large cap REITs f

1. SPH Reit  --  4th Jan 20192. SPH  --  11th Jan 20193. First Reit  --  16th Jan 20194. FrasersCom Trust  --  18th Jan 20195. Kep Reit  --  21st Jan 20196. Frasers Cpt Trust  --  21st Jan 20197. Mapletreelog Trust  --  21st Jan 20198. Kep DC Reit  --  22nd Jan 20199. Kep Infra Trust  --  22nd Jan 201910. MapletreeInd Trust  --  22nd Jan 201911. MapletreeCom Trust  --  23rd Jan 201912. Kep T&T  --  23rd Jan 201913. Suntec Reit  --  23rd Jan 201914. CapitaMall Trust  --  23rd Jan 201915. SGX  --  24th Jan 201916. Kep-KBS US Reit  --  24th Jan 201917. Kep Corp  --  24th Jan 201918. Frasers L&T  --  24th Jan

Sometimes I make mistakes when I teach a class. Fortunately, the smart folks who attend the session call me out very quickly and I can adjust my position rapidly on the spot.In this case, I made a glaring mistake projecting the yield of Astrea IV bonds, taking the coupons and dividing it by market price to get more than 4% yields. One of my students is a brilliant CFA III candidate and he pointed out my mistake immediately after punching numbers into his Texas BA II calculator.I have overestimated the yield to maturity of the bond.The tragedy is that Astrea IV is that it has a provision that allows it to be called or cancelled in June 2023. This means that in June 2023, I will get back to $1000 of my money and 6 months worth of coupon payments even though the market price right now is a $1

I writing a topical email every week to my mailing list. Here’s our last email to subscribers which I thought I share. You can sign up on our mailing list to get the latest updates when it goes out every week. Investing for “yield” is one of the main draws of the Singapore stock exchange. However, investors chasing yield have been burn badly in recent years – something I have talked about. The following email will cover both dividend paying stocks, bonds, preference shares and perpetuals. This email is one of the longest emails I’ve sent out but bear with me as the lessons here are timeless and apply to almost any investing situation. In this article, I am going to run through how investors can analyze whether a company’s dividend or payout is sustainable in the long run u

What a perfect storm for Singtel share price. Singtel share price is set to face reality once more as the telco announced a set of disastrous Q3FY2019 financial results which saw most business units reporting declining profits. Net profit declined 14% to $823 million due to increased competition in India. In my last article on Singtel share price, I predicted that this counter would enter 2019 in bad shape. Indeed, Singtel share price plunged to $2.86 on 3 January 2019 and only recently recovered to the $3.00 level. However, the recent financial results would likely roil Singtel share price again. It appears to me that Singtel share price is set for a roller coaster ride as the Q3FY2019 results fell short of many analyst estimates. Most business units reported declining profits on year-on-