STI Highlights Of 2013

31 DECEMBER 2013
STI Highlights Of 2013

Because of their sheer size, the 30 companies of the STI make up more than half of the market capitalisation of Singapore’s stock market. Like the stock market, these companies are diverse in terms of their geographical reach, relevant business sectors and the years that they have been serving us with products and services.

During the year, the STI held most of the relative strong gains of 2012 and had generated a total return of 2.6 percent as of the close on 27 December, 2013.


Five best performing STI stocks
The five strongest stocks of the Straits Times Index (STI) in the 2013 year up to Friday each represented a different sector. This was different from 2012, where four of the five best performing stocks for that year represented the Real Estate sector. Hence, the diversity
element of the stock market was a highlight of the year.

The five best performing STI stocks in 2013 through to Friday and respective total returns
were:

Thai Beverage (+38.5 percent)
SIA Engineering (+19.3 percent)
DBS Group (+18.5 percent)
Starhub (+18.5 percent)
ComfortDelgro (+15.9 percent)

The stock that posted the highest price gains over the year was Thai Beverage, which was also added to the STI during in March 2013. The five most laggard stocks of the STI over the year were City Developments (-25.4 percent), Jardine Cycle & Carriage (-24.6 percent), Capitaland (-18.1 percent), Golden Agri Resources (-16.9 percent) and Hongkong Land Holdings (-13.9 percent). Of these five stocks, the Real Estate Investment & Services Sector had three representations.

Five Highest Dividend Yields In 2013 YTD
The five STI stocks with the highest 12 month dividend yield as of Friday were Singapore Press Holdings (9.8 percent), Hutchison Port Holdings (8.9 percent), Starhub (4.7 percent), SingTel (4.6 percent) and SIA Engineering (4.4 percent). As noted in the table below, all 30 STI stocks, sorted by respective price changes in the year to date, maintain a dividend yield.




Source: Bloomberg (Data as of 27 December 2013)

Access To The STI Simplified Even Further This Year
There are two Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) listed on SGX that track the STI, the SPDR STI ETF (ES3) and the Nikko AM STI ETF (G3B). The two ETFs have different board sizes and thus maintain different minimum transaction requirements. These two Exchange Traded Funds that track the STI are both non-SIP and the SPDR STI ETF is included in the Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme (CPFIS).

Investor access to the STI has been enhanced in recent months with the OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan (click here) and POSB Invest Saver Scheme (click here) complementing the pre-existing Phillip Share Builders Plan (click here). These Regular Share Saving (RSS) plans make regular investing in the blue chip companies and securities related to the STI accessible to all investors.

These investment plans start from $100 per month. The provider of the RSS plan will invest this dollar amount in the specified stocks or STI product on a given day every month. If the share price of the counter is higher than it was during the previous month, the investor would
get fewer shares with the fixed dollar amount. If the share price is lower, the investor gets more shares. Therefore, the investor automatically buys less at market highs and more at market lows. Over the year, the price paid for each share of the counter will be averaged
over the different months.


Source/Extract/Excerpts/来源/转贴/摘录: http://www.sharesinv.com/
Publish date: 31/12/13