Singapore’s Strait Times Index (SGX: ^STI) has had a rough 2018, falling 9.1% from the start of the year until the end of November. Despite the market’s tantrums, not all blue-chip stocks have performed badly. With that in mind, let’s look at the top five performing companies and the returns they have provided to investors this year (data as of 30 November 2018): Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd (SGX: D01) is a member of the Jardine group of companies. Dairy Farm’s is a pan-Asian retailer that operates supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, health and beauty stores, and home furnishing stores. Some of the familiar brand names under the company’s portfolio are Giant, Guardian, and Cold Storage. Dairy Farm is the top performing stock on the STI this yea

The Singapore stock market has had a rough year so far with the local market benchmark, the Strait Times Index (SGX: ^STI), down by 9.1% from the start of the year to the end of November. But, some stocks have bucked the trend. Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (SGX: S63) is an example. ST Engineering’s share price rose by 13.7% from S$3.12 at the start of January 2018 to S$3.55 on 30 November 2018. With the company outperforming the Straits Times Index by a wide margin, let’s have a look at three of its valuation metrics to see if it’s still a buy at its current share price of S$3.50. The three metrics I’ll be looking at are the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, the price-to-book (PB) ratio, and dividend yield. The business ST Engineering is an integrated engineering gr

With no clarity how Trump-Xi meeting at the G20 summit in Argentina would pan out, UOBKH believes that the market will be taking flight into safety stocks with strong fundamentals. Thus, moving forward, UOBKH recommends investors to reposition their portfolio with such stocks to build up portfolio resilience. Investors Takeaway: 4 Cash Rich Companies With Generous Yields ST Engineering Despite registering slightly weaker 3Q18 results, UOBKH believes that ST Engineering’s long-term value remains intact. ST Engineering’s internal operating cash flow will also be sufficient to fund its dividend payout of $0.17 in 2019, based on a payout ratio of 85 percent. This implies an attractive yield of 4.9 percent. ST Engineering’s recent acquisition of MRAS is in the midst of getting cleara

The Straits Times Index is made of the 30 largest and most liquid stocks listed in Singapore. It provides a measure for the benchmark return in Singapore, and investors use it to compare how their investment portfolios have performed. The global stock markets have mostly turned red in 2018, and the STI was not spared either. In the YTD 2018, the STI has generated a return of -6.8%. Even though the collective returns of the 30 constituent stocks was negative 6.8%, the four best performing STI stocks managed to deliver a return of nearly 13.9%. This should not be confused with 52-weeks high, as you will see in some of the charts below. Read Also: Complete Guide To Investing In The Straits Times Index ETF This week, we discuss the four best performing STI constituent stock in our column. #1 D

1. SPH Reit  --  11th Oct 20182. Keppel Reit  --  15th Oct 20183. Keppel DC Reit  --  16th Oct 20184. Kep Infra Trust  --  16th Oct 20185. First Reit  --  16th Oct 20186. Kep-KBS US Reit  --  17th Oct 20187. Kep T&T  --  17th Oct 20188. Kep Corp  --  18th Oct 20189. FrasersCom Trust  --  19th Oct 201810. SGX  --  19th Oct 201811. Mapletreelog Trust  --  22nd Oct 201812. MapletreeInd Trust  --  23rd Oct 201813. Frasers Cpt Trust  --  24th Oct 201814. MapletreeCom Trust  --  24th Oct 201815. Suntec Reit  --  24th Oct 201816. M1  --  24th Oct201817. Semb Mar  --  25th Oct 201818. Parkway Life  --  25th Oct 20181

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (SGX: S63) is an engineering group with four main business sectors, namely, aerospace, electronics, land systems, and marine. This morning, the conglomerate released its financial results for the third quarter ended 30 September 2018. Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from the announcement. 1. Revenue for the reporting quarter inched up by 1% year-on-year to S$1.63 billion. The main drivers of growth were the aerospace and electronics sectors; revenue from those sectors rose 13% and 2% respectively. Land systems and marine segments saw lower revenue for the quarter. The marine segment’s top-line fell 16% to S$137 million. 2. Profit from operations came down by 1.3% to S$143.6 million mainly due to higher administrative expenses, and distribut

The STI fell 7.3 percent in the month of October as trade war worries, rising interest rates and correction in the US stock market weighed on the local market. The underperformance was underlined by weaker performance from property and O&G stocks after new property measures were announced and amidst the oil price correction. DBS: STI To End Year On A Weaker Note Given the uncertainty over impact of the US-China trade war and rising interest rates environment, DBS foresees STI to end on a weaker note at the end of the year. DBS lowered its target for STI from 3,550 to 3,200. In particular, DBS is concerned that bank stocks could be a potential drag for the STI. However, the recent fall in market has created more attractive valuation levels. Going forward, DBS recommends investors to ado

Consensus seems to agree that the investment climate is shifting. Stepping into the 3Q18 earnings season, analysts are turning marginally cautious as earnings revisions have turned negative. Amidst a myriad of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, market watchers are on the lookout for the first signs of economic recession as the International Monetary Fund also fuelled uneasiness when it warned of institutions struggling to find the next battle plan. Despite Singapore’s robust fundamentals and healthy corporate earnings performance in first half of 2018, management commentary coincided with a less upbeat outlook for the coming quarters. Many has cited global trade tensions and the surprise tightening of property cooling measures as primary concerns that have caused the level of optim

With the major indices in US shedding off gains, there is a growing concern that the market is returning to a state of panic. As global equities enter a phase of correction (some already in bear markets), DBS recommends investors to get defensive in the current sell down climate. Turning towards yield plays, investors are recommended to seek shelter from income stability. Investors Takeaway: 3 Familiar Stocks To Weather Gloomy Outlook Koufu As a leading food court and coffee shop operator in Singapore, Koufu is one of the defensive shares that DBS recommends. Koufu is fundamentally very strong with its strong cash flow generation capability, defensive earnings, and net cash balance sheet. In particular, Koufu’s return on average equity (ROAE) of 25.4 percent for forward-FY19 is one of

A year ago, Phillip Capital Management, along with Lion Global Investors, launched the Lion-Phillip S-REIT ETF. The ETF aimed to give investors a way to invest in a diversified basket of Singapore REITs (S-REITs) which paid a steady stream of distributions. (At the moment, the average distribution yield for S-REITs is 6.8%.) The ETF was met with a largely positive response from the market – Lion Global Investors and Phillip Capital Management initially aimed to raise S$40-50 million but exceeded their target when the fund raised over S$100 million last October. Capitalizing on the Singapore market’s appetite for yield, Phillip Capital Management has now launched the Phillip SING Income ETF. The initial offer period for the ETF will close at 11:00 a.m. on 19 October 2018 before its list

The woes of the global market continue to drag down performance of the STI and investors are seeing the warning signs to be more selective in stock picking. Here are five stocks that UOBKH thinks will be better positioned. Investors Takeaway: 5 Stocks To Make Your Portfolio More Robust Valuetronics Valuetronics continue to enjoy healthy demand for the industrial and commercial electronics (ICE) segment. While it has not yet transpired to strong earnings this time round, UOBKH foresees a better earnings report for Valuetronics in the upcoming quarter. UOBKH highlights that recovery in the smart lighting segment is progressing smoothly. Valuetronics has also been focusing on more product innovation, which will help its consumer electronics division to continue driving stable growth in th

There are many ways to find investment ideas. Some useful methods are to screen for stocks or to look at a list of stocks near their 52-week lows to sieve out potential bargains. Studying what institutional investors have been buying or selling is another avenue. Institutional investors are typically large investment organisations, such as hedge funds, mutual funds, unit trust companies, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and so on. These investors tend to possess vastly greater resources than individual investors like you and me when researching stocks. Hence, it may be useful to keep a close eye on what they are doing, as a way to generate ideas. In this article, I will look at three Singapore stocks that were among the top 10 shares that saw the highest net purchases in dollar

Despite Singapore’s healthy economic fundamentals and strong corporate earnings performance in 2Q18, analysts are striking a more cautious tone. Analysts are touting that earnings momentum is expected to decelerate, bringing an end to 18 months of earnings upgrades. For 2018, consensus has slashed earnings per share (EPS) forecasts for the MSCI Singapore by 0.7 percentage point during August. The telecommunication sector, in particular, saw the greatest earnings downgrade. Management commentary during the 2Q18 earnings season also turned less positive as compared to three months ago. Corporations cited the growing trade tensions and recent property cooling measures as the reasons behind their gloomy outlook. Only a few companies experienced a material impact from trade war but the situat

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (SGX: S63) is a conglomerate specialising in the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors. The group serves customers in the defence, government and commercial segments in over 100 countries. ST Engineering shares closed at S$3.57 apiece yesterday. At that price, the company had a dividend yield of 4.2%. In contrast, the SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3), an exchange-traded fund which can be taken as a proxy for the local stock market, had a yield of less than 4% on the same day. With a dividend yield that is higher than that of the stock market in general, a question naturally arises: Is ST Engineering’s dividend sustainable going forward? To find out if ST Engineering’s dividend is sustainable, we have to look at its free cash flow and div

Hi, everyone. Here are three things about the local stock market that you might be interested in today. 1. The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) ended the day up 0.5%, or 16.9 points, to 3,236.08. Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (SGX: S63) shares rose the most today at 2.6% to close at S$3.57 each. Around two weeks ago, the conglomerate made public that it is expanding its business by acquiring MRA Systems, a firm that makes aircraft engine parts. This would allow ST Engineering to scale up its aerospace capabilities. On the other end of the winner-loser spectrum, the company that lost the most ground was Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (SGX: Y92); its shares went south by 1.4% to S$0.685 apiece. 2. Nico Steel Holdings Limited (SGX: 5GF) revealed that based on an initial assessm

NetLink NBN Trust Price – $0.78 Target – $0.95 NetLink NBN Trust (NetLink) has dominant market share of 90% for residential and 35% for non-residential fibre connections. The group added 24,600 residential connections in 1Q19 representing a 2.1% q-o-q increase, and there is still an untapped market of 300,000 residential homes not on fibre broadband. Meanwhile, NetLink also added 900 non-residential connections over the same period rising 2.1% having a competitive advantage in areas outside of CBD and business parks due to its extensive nationwide coverage. Entry of the fourth mobile operator causes no concern as TPG Telecom would be a customer of NetLink relying on its NBAP connections for backhaul transmission. We see NetLink as the most defensive stock listed on the SGX because of i

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (SGX: S63), part of the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), is a global technology, defence and engineering conglomerate specialising in the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors. The aerospace business segment is the largest for the group, and competes against the likes of SIA Engineering Company Ltd (SGX: S59). Last week, ST Engineering shares closed at S$3.53 apiece, up 6.3% for the week. On Friday (14 September) itself, its shares climbed 7.3%. In comparison, over the past week, the Straits Times Index added just 0.9%. With the massive rise in ST Engineering’s share price, many investors might be wondering: What is the reason behind the excitement? The most probable cause for ST Engineering’s shares to soar is its positive anno

The consensus is becoming wary of weaker-than-expected GDP growth and slower EPS growth. RHB thinks that investors should readjust their portfolio to seek shelter in plays that will do well in a weaker economic environment. Using a top-down strategy, RHB identified two investment themes to help investors identify which stocks to look at. Investors Takeaway: 2 Top Down Investment Themes To Position For 2H18 Investment Theme 1: Riding On The Macro Trend Of Rising Interest Rates With an expectation of four rate hikes this year, RHB thinks that SIBOR will continue to be pushed higher by US Federal Funds Rate. This bodes well for Singapore banks and should drive net interest margins up in banks. Thus, RHB highlights banks as one of its top-down investment themes. UOB Prior to the cooling mea

KGI recently released its investment strategy for the Singapore market in the next one year. Over the next 12 months, KGI recommends investors to sell into strength and start rebuilding into a defensive portfolio. Investors Takeaway: 3 Blue Chips To Make Your Portfolio Go On The Defensive Singapore Telecommunications Singtel has a well-diversified portfolio with 50 percent of pre-tax profits coming from regional associates. Its indicative dividend yield also looks attractive at 5.5 percent. Furthermore, consensus expects earnings to rebound by FY20 driven by potential earnings recovery of its Indian associate Bharti Airtel. Singtel has been showing significant recovery since hitting its low of $3.02. As such, KGI continues to recommend Singtel to be a part of the defensive portfolio.

In the current risk-off environment, we continue to highlight 4 blue chip dividend plays that OCBC recommends. Investors Takeaway: 4 Blue Chip Dividend Plays Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Yangzijiang Shipbuilding delivered a 110 percent increase in revenue and a 38 percent increase in net profit year-on-year. As such, 1H18 net profit accounted for about 65 percent of OCBC’s full year estimates, which is higher than expectations. The strong showing in revenue was due to the delivery of 20 vessels in 2Q18, compared to just four in 2Q17. The delivery of larger- sized vessels this quarter also helped Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in its earnings. Looking ahead, management sees a gradual recovery in the shipbuilding market, with the potential for higher margins in the bulker segment. Acc