FTSE Russell, together with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX), maintains the Singapore stock market’s primary benchmark – the Straits Times Index (STI).
In addition to the STI, FTSE Russell maintains other indices of SGX-listed stocks for the purposes of benchmarking portfolio performance and creation of financial products like mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These indices represent different sectors, company sizes, and themes.
Read Also: S&P500 vs Straits Times Index: Which Is “Better” For Beginner Singapore Investors?
One of these indices is the FTSE ST Small Cap Index, which FTSE Russell describes as “a free float-adjusted, market capitalisation-weighted index representing the performance of small-capitalised companies, which pass size, free float and liquidity screens and trade on SGX Mainboard”.
The FTSE ST Small Cap Index comprises 51 constituents with individual market capitalisation of between $63 million to over $2 billion. Together, these companies have a combined market capitalisation of about $40 billion and represent about 12% of the Singapore market by capitalisation.
Of the 51 companies in the FTSE ST Small Cap Index, 19 are REITs/business trusts. Of the 32 non-REIT constituents, 12 counters have indicated yields of above 4%.
In this week’s instalment of 4 Stocks This Week, we will take a look at four of the best-performing non-REIT constituents of the FTSE ST Small Cap Index. These 4 stocks averaged a year-to-date return of about 26.375%.
QAF (SGX: Q01)
QAF Limited is a food company based in Singapore, with business operations across the Asia-Pacific region, including Malaysia, Australia and Taiwan. Its core businesses include the manufacture and distribution of bread, bakery and confectionery products.
Towards this end, the company also does warehousing logistics capabilities for food items, feedmilling and sale of animal feeds and related ingredients. QAF owns food brands like Gardenia, Bonjour and Rivalea, Australia’s largest pork producer.
QAF closed this week at $0.845, giving it a market capitalisation of $486.1 million.
UMS (SGX: 558)
Headquartered in Singapore, UMS Holdings Limited provides equipment manufacturing and engineering services primarily to semiconductor original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other industries.
In particular, the company supplies precision machining components and equipment modules for semiconductor OEMs and various base components to oil and gas OEMs. UMS also provides water and chemical engineering solutions to the oil & gas (O&G), power generation and chemical industries.
UMS has production facilities in Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States (California and Texas), with business operations in these three areas as well as the People’s Republic of China, Poland, Taiwan and South Korea.
UMS’s stock closed this week $0.7, giving it a market cap of $375.5 million.
Read Also: Investing In Hong Kong, China and USA: Here Are 7 ETFs Which You Ought To Know About
Chip Eng Seng (SGX: C29)
Chip Eng Seng Corporation Ltd (CES) is a construction and property group. CES’s construction business is run by Chip Eng Seng Contractors (CESC), while CEL Development runs CES’s property investment business.
The company’s core business activities include construction, property developments, property investments, and hotel operations.
Their hotel portfolio include Park Hotel Alexandra in Singapore), Grand Park Kodhipparu Resort in Maldives, as well as Sebel Mandurah Hotel, Mercure & Ibis Styles Grosvenor Hotel, and a to-be-built hotel along 51 Pirie Street in Australia.
CES closed this week at $0.78, with a market cap of $520.66 million.
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Bumitama Agri (SGX: P8Z)
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Indonesia, Bumitama Agri Ltd. engages in crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK) production. The company owns and operates oil palm plantations and mills in Indonesia, with a total land bank of approximately 199,000 hectares in three provinces, including Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and Riau.
Bumitama Agri is one of the first few oil palm growers in Southeast Asia to adopt a “No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation” policy, with a firm commitment to sustainability.
The company was listed on SGX in 2012 and closed this week at $0.725, giving it a market cap of $1.27 billion.
Read Also: How To Know When Is The Right Time To Sell Your Stocks
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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