SGX Research: REIT Earnings in Focus, with Commodities & Bonds on the Move

  • Last week the STI added 2.1%, again led by Banks. Friday’s debutants, SLB Development and Asia Healthcare Specialists both finished the session firmer and were amongst the 20 most active stocks by turnover.

  • Earnings Season will pick up a notch from last week, with a dozen REITs expected to report for the March 2018 quarter. This will include STI constituents Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Commercial Trust, and on Wednesday, Venture Corporation reports.

  • Last week, Crude Oil advanced to a high of US$69.56/bbl, to Dec 2014 highs. The inflationary concerns of higher oil prices have seen US 10-year Treasury yields return above 2.95%, levels last seen in early Feb following inflationary concerns from wage growth.

Earnings Season will pick up a notch from last week, with a dozen REITs expected to report financials for the March 2018 quarter. This will include STI constituents Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Commercial Trust, and on Wednesday Venture Corporation reports. Seven STI constituents will also go ex-dividend in the course of the week. For more details click here

On the global macro front, US Treasury Yields are higher across the curve. The US 10 year Treasury yieldsended Friday at 2.96%. This level was last seen in the first week of February. In that instance, the higher yield was driven the monthly gauge of average hourly earnings growth creating inflation concerns. However this time around, the strength in the US 10 year Treasury yields has coincided with the inflationary ramifications of higher commodity prices.

Crude Oil futures traded as high as US$69.56/bbl on Thursday evening, which represents a 15% gain from the end of 2017 price of US$60.36/bbl. In early Monday trading Crude Oil futures were trading at US$68.10. The price of Crude oil was last above $67.00/bbl in December 2014.

The next Fed Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled next week on 1 to 2 May.

As illustrated below the SGX MOG Index has been more volatile than the Straits Times Index (STI) in the 2018 year thus far. Nevertheless, the SGX MOG Index is up some 10.1% from its 4 April lows. The SGX MOG Index includes a 12% weightage to Singapore’s largest capitalised upstream oil and gas exploration and production play, KrisEnergy. KrisEnergy was amongst the five strongest stocks of the FTSE ST Small Cap Index last week, in addition to trading more than twice its average volume for the week.

STI_MOG+index
STI_MOG+index

Source: Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (Data as of 20 April 2018)

Last week the STI gained 2.1%, bringing the year-to-date total return to 5.4%.

  • United Overseas Bank, Singapore Press Holdings, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, Keppel Corp and DBS Group Holdings led the STI higher, with the five stocks averaging 4.8% gains. The five least performing stocks averaged a 3.9% decline, and were led by Venture Corp which declined 14.3%, paring its year-to-date total return to 23.5%.

  • On Friday, two debutants, SLB Development and Asian Healthcare Specialists finished the day ranked within the 20 most active stocks by turnover. These two stocks both listed on Catalist. SLB Development ended the session up 8.7% from its initial issue price, whilst Asian Healthcare Specialists ended the session up 47.8%.

  • SLB Development undertakes small to large scale residential developments, mixed-used projects, as well as industrial and commercial developments and is a spin-off from Mainboard-listed Lian Beng Group, one of Singapore’s major home-grown building and construction groups. For more information click here.

  • Asia Healthcare Specialists is a group of orthopaedic specialists who provide a wide spectrum of general and subspecialised treatments, including orthopaedic, trauma and sports services. For more information click here.

By comparison to the STI’s total return of 5.4%, which assumes dividends are reinvested, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index has declined 1.0% by the same measure, which is similar to the average decline of the benchmarks of the regional financial centres. Looking back further to a period of 10 years, however the STI total return is more aligned with the long term performance of the MSCI Asia Pacific Index with the STI at 57.7% and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index at 56.3%.

The recent performances of the STI and STI Reserve List are tabled below. To see more details on each stock, click in SGX StockFacts, click on the stock name.

STI

SGX Code

Market Cap S$B

20 April Closing Price

Total Return 2017 %

Total Return YTD %

Month to Date Return %

Dvd Ind Yld %

DBS Group Hldgs

D05

75.9

29.490

47.7

19.1

7.6

3.1

Jardine Matheson Hldgs*

J36

59.2

61.610

4.0

2.3

0.6

2.6

Jardine Strategic Hldgs*

J37

55.8

38.390

11.0

-4.3

-0.2

0.8

Singtel

Z74

55.7

3.410

3.2

-4.5

1.2

5.1

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp

O39

57.4

13.700

43.6

10.8

7.1

2.7

United Overseas Bank

U11

49.3

29.700

33.7

12.2

8.0

2.7

Thai Beverage PCL

Y92

20.1

0.800

11.3

-11.1

2.6

3.4

Hongkong Land Hldgs*

H78

21.8

7.060

5.5

0.3

2.0

2.8

Wilmar International

F34

20.3

3.220

-12.1

3.9

0.9

3.1

CapitaLand

C31

15.7

3.730

20.1

5.7

4.5

3.2

Genting Singapore PLC

G13

14.3

1.180

48.6

-9.2

10.2

2.9

Jardine Cycle & Carriage

C07

13.9

35.480

1.0

-13.4

2.1

3.2

Keppel Corp

BN4

14.9

8.270

30.9

11.7

5.7

2.7

Singapore Airlines

C6L

12.7

10.790

12.5

0.9

-0.6

1.9

City Developments

C09

11.5

12.740

53.1

1.4

-2.6

0.6

ST Engineering

S63

11.4

3.660

5.0

12.0

1.7

4.1

Singapore Exchange

S68

8.1

7.760

7.9

2.2

2.6

3.7

Ascendas REIT

A17U

7.9

2.710

27.4

-0.4

3.0

6.6

UOL Group

U14

7.4

8.810

51.2

-0.6

3.2

2.0

CapitaLand Mall Trust

C38U

7.5

2.100

19.5

0.0

1.0

5.3

CapitaLand Commercial Trust

C61U

6.6

1.820

42.1

-3.6

-0.5

4.7

Venture Corp

V03

7.3

25.700

115.4

23.5

-10.0

2.1

SATS

S58

6.0

5.460

10.9

3.7

5.1

3.1

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Hldgs

BS6

4.8

1.210

86.3

-17.7

0.0

3.6

Sembcorp Industries

U96

5.8

3.270

8.8

6.9

4.2

1.6

StarHub

CC3

4.0

2.310

7.9

-19.3

0.0

6.9

Golden Agri-Resources

E5H

4.5

0.350

-10.8

-5.4

0.0

2.4

Hutchison Port Hldgs Trust*

NS8U

3.8

0.325

-4.5

-18.5

11.9

7.9

ComfortDelGro

C52

4.7

2.180

-16.4

10.6

6.8

4.6

SPH

T39

4.3

2.690

-21.0

1.5

6.7

3.3

Average

 

 

 

21.5

0.7

2.8

3.4

SGD equivalents shown for Jardine Matheson Holdings, Jardine Strategic Holdings, Hongkong Land Holdings and Hutchison Port Hldgs Trust traded in USD. Source: SGX StockFacts & Bloomberg (Data as of 20 April 2018).

STI Reserve List

SGX Code

Market Cap S$B

20 April Closing Price

Total Return 2017 %

Total Return YTD %

Month to Date Return %

Dvd Ind Yld %

Sembcorp Marine

S51

4.8

2.330

34.9

26.1

3.1

0.9

Suntec REIT

T82U

5.1

1.930

37.6

-9.1

2.1

5.2

Mapletree Commercial Trust

N2IU

4.6

1.600

23.0

0.7

2.5

5.6

Keppel REIT

K71U

4.1

1.230

30.1

-2.1

0.8

4.6

Mapletree Logistics Trust

M44U

3.9

1.250

38.7

-3.1

2.4

5.9

Average

 

 

 

32.9

2.5

2.2

4.4

Source: Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (Data as of 20 April 2018)