
Market sentiment has been affected in recent weeks by increased global market volatility, contributed in no small part by simmering trade tensions between the United States and China. Other concerns include the anticipated increase in US interest rates.
Despite this, the five best-performing STI constituents managed to average a year-to-date return of 13%, which we’ve outlined last week.
Another well-referenced index is the FTSE ST All-Share Index, which currently comprises of 127 Large, Mid and Small Cap companies listed on the SGX Mainboard. Despite overall market volatility, the five least volatile stocks of the FTSE ST All-Share Index averaged declines of just 0.3% in total returns for 2018 year-to-date. This is following an average 17% total returns in 2017.
This week, we’ll take a closer look at four of the least volatile stocks on the FTSE ST All-Share Index, namely, SPH REIT, EC World REIT, Hong Leong Finance, and NetLink NBN Trust.
Read Also: An Alternative To The STI ETF? Introducing The Phillip SING Income ETF
SPH REIT (SGX: SK6U)
The least volatile stock on the FTSE ST All-Share Index was SPH REIT, which had a 2018 year-to-date volatility of 9.7% and generated a marginal gain of 0.1% year-to-date.
SPH REIT’s portfolio include Paragon, Clementi Mall and the recently acquired Rail Mall. As of 31 August 2018, its properties has a committed occupancy rate of 99.4%.
For FY18 ending 31 August, SPH REIT reported an aggregate DPU of 5.54 cents, which was 0.2% higher compared to last year. The largest single shareholder in SPH REIT is SPH, which owns 67.8%.
SPH REIT closed at $1 this week.
Read Also: [2018 Edition] Complete Guide To Start Your REITs Investing Journey In Singapore
EC World Real Estate Investment Trust (SGX: BWCU)
The second least volatile constituent of the FTSE ST All-Share Index was EC World REIT, with a volatility of 10.7%.
Listed in 2016, EC World REIT has a portfolio of properties mostly situated in one of the largest e-commerce clusters in Hangzhou, China. The properties are used in e-commerce, supply-chain management and logistics.
As of 30 September, EC World REIT has a committed portfolio occupancy of 99.2%. For the first 3 quarters of FY2018 ended 30 September, EC World REIT had a DPU of 4.609 cents, which was up 1.9% year-on-year.
EC World REIT closed this week at $0.70.
Hong Leong Finance Limited (SGX: S41)
Hong Leong Finance is the financial services arm of Hong Leong Group Singapore. With its network of 28 branches and 10 SME Centres islandwide, Hong Leong Finance provides an extensive suite of financial products and services for both consumers and corporate clients, including SMEs.
The company also provides equity fund raising services such as initial public offering, secondary fund raising, and stock underwriting.Hong Leong Finance is also one of the accredited Catalist Board full-sponsors and issue manager.
The company reported that attributable profit after tax was up 51.2% year-on-year for the first 3 quarters of 2018, ended 30 September.
Hong Leong Finance had a 2018 year-to-date volatility of 10.9% and closed at $2.59 this week.
Read Also: Complete Guide To Investing In The STI ETF
NetLink NBN Trust (SGX: CJLU)
Listed on SGX in 2017, NetLink NBN Trust’s $2.3 billion IPO was Singapore’s largest IPO in 6 years. Currently, NetLink NBN Trusts’s largest single shareholder is Singtel, which owns 24.79%.
NetLink NBN Trust is a business trust that builds, owns and operates the passive fibre network infrastructure for homes and non-residential premises, and non-building address points (NBAP) in Singapore. As of 31 March, 2018, the company had about 1.2 million residential, 835 NBAP, and 43,855 non-residential end-user connections.
The company announced that its 1HFY2019 (ending 30 September) profit after tax outperformed projections by 21.4%. As such, higher distribution for 1HFY19 of 2.44 cents per unit was announced.
With a year-to-date volatility of 11.7%, the stocks closed this week at $0.775.
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4 Stocks This Week is not a recommendation from us to buy or sell any of these stocks. For investors who are keen to find out more, you should continue researching about them before making your investment decisions.
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