Singapore Press Holdings to lose its place on Straits Times Index
SINGAPORE — Singapore Press Holdings will lose its place on the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) with effect from 22 June, in yet another sign of the newspaper and property conglomerate’s flagging fortunes.
The STI tracks the performance of Singapore’s 30 largest listed companies by market capitalisation, excluding those that have a main listing in another country or whose shares are tightly held. Being dropped from the STI will hurt SPH’s share price since the stock will no longer be held by funds that track the blue-chip index.
SPH slumped to its lowest closing level since 1992 last Friday as money managers sold off the stock after it was dropped from the MSCI Singapore Index, another widely followed stock benchmark.
In a statement issued after the close of trading on Thursday (4 June), FTSE Russell, the index administrator, said SPH will be replaced by Mapletree Industrial Trust following a regular quarterly review.
FTSE Russell has partnered SPH, publisher of the Straits Times newspaper, and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to jointly calculate the STI since 2008.
The STI and its previous incarnation, the Straits Times Industrial Index, has been Singapore’s main stock market benchmark since 1966.
Shares of SPH, which closed 0.7 per cent higher at S$1.37 on Thursday, have lost over 40 per cent of their value in the past year amid a slump in advertising and circulation revenue at its newspaper division.
Besides the Straits Times, SPH also owns the Business Times and Chinese papers Lianhe Zaobao, Lianhe Wanbao and Shin Min Daily News.
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