DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), or DBS, is one of the three major banks based out of Singapore, along with United Overseas Bank Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Limited. The company has recently announced its 2018 fourth-quarter earnings update, and there are five positive things I think investors should take note. But first, let’s run through the company’s numbers. The results Here’s a quick summary of some key financial metrics for the quarter. Source: DBS’s Result Presentation All metrics improved on a year-on-year basis, but there’s more to these numbers. First of all, total income for the quarter grew 6% year on year to S$3.2 billion due to double-digit percentage growth in net interest income, offset slightly by lower non-interest income. Secondly, DBS Group’

It’s a big week for earnings with Singapore’s three big banks and two giants from the property sector set to report. Geopolitical and economic headwinds had no impact on third-quarter results at DBS Group (SGX: D05). However, Singapore’s biggest bank did miss market forecast when it posted numbers in November. But Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (SGX: O39) topped forecasts when it reported a 12% jump in third-quarter profits. That was thanks to a rise in net interest income as a result of growth in customer loans. United Overseas Bank (SGXU11) also chimed in with a surge in quarterly profits last time. Earnings climbed 14% on strong loan growth and an improvement in net interest margin. In November, CapitaLand (SGX: C31) reported a 13.6% rise in third-quarter profits. The propert

Today, we are going to share with you how to grow your CPF investment money in a no-brainer way. The best part? You need not be financial savvy to do this. A beginner can do it! And I’ll reveal the exact step-by-step process, which you can follow easily. What is CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS)? It is to provide option to CPF members to invest their CPF savings in various instruments such as insurance products, unit trusts, fixed deposits, bonds and shares. The Average CPF Interest Rate is 2.5% to 4% for Ordinary Account. Check their latest interest rate here. Below is the latest CPF rate.   Share this Infographic On Your Site </p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />&l

Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) is the maker of the Tiger Balm brand of ointment. Other than its healthcare arm, it also has strategic stakes in UOL Group Limited and United Overseas Bank Ltd. At a current price of S$12.22, Haw Par’s stock price is 4.8% higher than its 52-week low of S$11.65. Is Haw Par cheap now? If so, it might be a good opportunity for investors to start or add to a position in the stock. There is no easy answer to the question “Is this stock cheap?”, but we can get some insight by comparing Haw Par’s current valuation with the market’s valuation using three common metrics: the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, and dividend yield. I will be using the SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3) as a proxy for the market; the SPDR STI ETF is an

https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/23/singapores-top-10-dividend-shares-among-the-worlds-best/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/21/3-singapore-blue-chips-that-have-more-than-doubled-their-profits-in-the-last-decade/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/17/institutional-investors-have-been-buying-these-3-singapore-blue-chip-stocks/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/15/love-dividends-then-check-out-these-3-singapore-listed-banks/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/14/2-singapore-blue-chips-that-have-more-than-doubled-their-profits-in-the-last-decade/Investing is a game of probabilities – there are no sure things. But there are some things that I am pretty certain will happen in 2019. 1. Individual stocks will be volatile, regardless of how the overall market does. After the painful fourth quarter of 2018, it’s probably h

If you are a dividend-hungry investor, you should pay attention to the following blue-chip banks. The banks have been great dividend masters. They also have the potential to increase their dividends in years to come given their stable businesses. Bank #1: DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05) DBS is the largest bank in Singapore and is one of Asia’s leading banks with over nine million customers in 18 markets. From 2013 to 2017, DBS has increased its dividend by 25% per year from S$0.58 per share to S$1.43 per share (includes 2017’s special dividend of S$0.50 per share). On a longer time frame, its dividend had climbed 11.2% yearly from S$0.26 per share in 2001 up till 2017. From 2018 onwards, DBS has committed to an annual dividend payment of S$1.20 per share. The higher dividend policy w

United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) or UOB, is one of the three main local banks listed in Singapore. The company’s stocks are currently out of favor among investors. At its current price of S$25.50 (at the time of writing), UOB’s shares are down by 16% from its peak of S$ 30.37 in the last 12 months. Though the market is not in favor of the company now, there are still good reasons for long term investors to consider UOB as an investment candidate. Here’s three of them. We discussed the first two reasons in an article here. As a quick recap, those reasons were: Proven financial track record Conservative capital adequacy ratio In this article, we will continue with the final reason. Attractive valuation No investment analysis is ever complete unless we consider the valuation of the

In this article, we continue to highlight another investment theme that DBS recommends for investors in 2019: Yield plays with growth potential. Investors Takeaway: 5 Yield Plays With Growth Potential By DBS ComfortDelGro Corporation The greatest concern about investing in ComfortDelgro Corporation (ComfortDelgro) is the impending full entry of Go-Jek. Go-Jek’s entry will create increased competition from the private hire cars on ComfortDelgro’s core business. However, DBS is confident that competition is unlikely to heighten back to the times when Grab and Uber were both competing in the space. Heading into 2019, DBS is forecasting positive year-on-year growth for ComfortDelgro, which may be surprising to some investors. DBS notes that ComfortDelgro has been showing positives signs of

United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11), commonly referred to as UOB, is one of the three main local banks listed in Singapore. UOB stocks are currently out of favor among investors; at its current price of S$25.50 (at the time of writing), UOB’s shares are down by 16% from its peak of S$ 30.37 in the last 12 months. Though the market is not in favor of the company now, there are still good reasons for long term investors to consider UOB as an investment candidate. Here’s two of them. Proven financial track record One of the most important factor that investors seek in any investment is the ability of a company to sustain its profitability in the foreseeable future. To assess this, investors will usually look at the company’s track record for a minimum of five years. Here, the idea is si

In 2018, the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) posted a 6.5% decline in total return (which consists of capital gains and dividends), as revealed in a recent report by the Singapore Exchange. However, the three banks that belong to the index did better for the year. Let’s look at out how each of the banks performed in 2018. DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05) DBS, the biggest bank in Singapore, posted a total return of 1.2% last year. The bank’s high dividend yield of around 5% allowed the total return to stay in the positive territory despite the fall in share price. For the nine months ended 30 September 2018, DBS’ total income went up by 12% to a record of S$9.94 billion mainly due to higher net interest income, which rose 16% to S$6.63 billion. Net interest margin increased from 1.7

In Singapore, the three major listed banks are DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). After peaking in April 2018, these banks have seen their stocks price declining for the next few months, down by more than 20% from their respective peaks. The decline in the banks’ stocks price might draw some interest from investors. One of this group of investors is the Singapore dividend investors. In particular, Singaporean dividend investors might want to know which bank might be a better Singapore dividend stock. Clearly, there is no easy answer to the above question. After all, we do not know what will happen in the future. Still, we would like put the trio side by side for a direct comparison. In our pre

In Singapore, the three major listed banks are DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). After peaking between end-April and early-May 2018, these banks have seen their stocks price declining for the next few months, down by more than 20% from their respective peaks. The decline in the Singapore banks’ share prices might draw some interest from investors. One of the groups of investors would the dividend investors. In particular, income investors might want to know: Which bank is the best dividend stock to own? There is no easy answer to the above question. After all, we do not know what will happen in the future. Still, I would like put the trio side-by-side for a direct comparison to find out the b

According to a recent report released by the Singapore Exchange, 32 companies bought back 97 million shares or units for a total amount of S$78 million in December 2018. For the full year, the total share buybacks amounted to S$1.5 billion. The top ten companies with the most significant share buyback amounts in December were United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11), Keppel REIT (SGX: K71U), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39), Stamford Land Corporation Ltd (SGX: H07), Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03), SingHaiyi Group Ltd (SGX: 5H0), SATS Ltd (SGX: S58), Singapore Post Limited (SGX: S08), Tuan Sing Holdings Limited (SGX: T24), and Sembcorp Industries Limited (SGX: U96). Keppel REIT’s manager has been regularly buying back the REIT’s units since July 2018. As I noted

There are many ways to find investment ideas. Some useful ways 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 (among the top ten stocks) that have seen the highest net purchases in dollar valu

The Straits Times Index (STI) is made up of the 30 strongest and most liquid stocks listed in Singapore. Comprising close to 80% of the entire market value in Singapore, the returns that the stocks on the STI provides is essentially the market returns or benchmark returns. For investors who are new or prefer taking a hands-off approach, being able to invest in the STI can be the most practical way to invest. This is primarily because it offers several advantages such as diversifying our investment portfolio with just one investment as well as receiving the market returns without requiring much knowledge or spending time monitoring and adjusting our portfolios. Currently, there are two listed STI exchange traded funds (ETFs) – the SPDR STI ETF and the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF – that w

On Christmas Eve of 2018, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 Indexes recorded their worst pre-Christmas trading day ever. The DJIA fell over 653 points or 2.91%, while the S&P 500 fell by 65.52 points, or 2.71%. This was right after the Dow experienced its worst week since 2008 when the Dow fell by nearly 7%. When the United States (U.S.) markets reopened after Christmas, U.S. equities registered a huge turnaround, with the DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq soaring by nearly 5%, each registering their largest one-day percentage gains since 2009. The DJIA climbed over 1000 points, its highest one-day point gain on record. Overall, all three indexes closed higher this week, their first weekly gain since late November. This turbulent week had an effect locally on the Strai

In support of Singapore’s efforts to become a cashless society, many solutions have emerged, including mobile wallets, a standardised QR code format, and even a common platform for conveniently making and receiving cashless payments across banks. The latter is known as PayNow, and if you haven’t yet set-up PayNow functionality for your bank account, here are some good reasons why you should get yourself registered today. Watch: Is It Possible To Live Cashlessly In Singapore? What Is PayNow? PayNow is a peer-to-peer fund transfer service launched by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on 10 July 2017. It allows users to transfer funds from one bank account to another in Singapore through FAST simply by entering a mobile number or Singapore NRIC/FIN. The servic

Since hitting their respective peaks in the earlier part of 2018, shares in DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) have declined significantly. For instance, the biggest of the trio, DBS, saw its share price fall 23% to S$23.28 yesterday, since hitting a high of S$30.84 on 30 April 2018. With the tumbling share prices, investors might be wondering if there is value in the banks’ shares at the latest stock prices. To answer that, let’s compare the historical price-to-book (PB) ratios, price-to-earnings (PE) ratios and dividend yields of the three banks with current valuations. Bank #1: DBS The following is a snapshot of DBS’ valuations from 2013 to 2017:Source: DBS 2017 annual report Over the pa

In 2018, stocks that are listed on Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) has seen an increase in volatility compared to 2017. This heightened volatility has also translated into a higher trading turnover for more than half of the STI stocks. Read Also: Complete Guide To Investing In The STI ETF Trading turnover is simply calculated as the price of a stock multiplied by its trading volume. When a stock’s trading turnover surges, it usually means there is more interest in the company. This can be either a good or bad thing as investors find reasons to buy up the stock or sell down the stock. A surge in trading volume can also represent institutional investors actively investing in or selling the stock. As the STI has declined by close to 11.2% in 2018, it shouldn’t come as a surprise t

Hello, everyone. Here are three things about the local stock market and investing in general that you might be interested in today. 1. The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) inched up 13.1 points, or 0.4%, to end the day at 3,058.7. Of the 30 index components, 20 finished in the green; four were in the red while the remaining six ended the day unchanged. The stock that emerged as the best performer was shipbuilder, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Ltd (SGX: BS6). Its shares rose 4.2% to S$1.24 each. On the other hand, Golden Agri-Resources Ltd (SGX: E5H) was the biggest loser as it fell 2% to S$0.25. 2. Still in the blue-chip territory, I checked out the valuations of the Singapore banking trio – DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39) and