January
3,365.67
(+3.52%)
The STI saw an early boost at the start of the year, with investors optimistic on the back of China’s reopening the month before.
The Fed’s hints that it would moderate interest rate hikes also contributed to investor optimism. Real estate investment trusts (Reits) and the manufacturing sector drew strong investor interest on the anticipation of smaller interest rate hikes by central banks. Four of the top five performers on the STI were Reits, which gained between 8.6 and 15.3 per cent. The biggest gainer was Keppel DC Reit.
Meanwhile, Keppel Corporation’s offshore and marine (O&M) arm made the news after it secured a S$130 million contract for the construction of a 600 megawatt offshore substation. It also ran into legal trouble the same month, with the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) issuing stern warnings to six individuals who were previously senior management staff of Keppel’s O&M unit. The warnings were for offences related to bribe payments to officials of Brazilian state-owned corporation Petrobras.
Sim Wong Hoo, the founding chairman and chief executive of home-grown electronics company Creative Technology passed away that month. The company’s shares rose as much as 41 per cent on news of his passing.
FEBRUARY
The STI fell marginally as the Fed hiked interest rates by 0.25 per cent, its smallest hike since it began its campaign to cool inflation.
Amid elevated interest rates in Singapore, the government rolled out a Budget focused on strengthening Singapore’s social compact as the country emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic. The initiatives included providing more financial support to help families and companies cope with inflation and cushion the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase.
At the same time, the government raised taxes on luxury items and announced stamp duties for higher-value residential and non-residential properties above S$1.5 million.
In the market, Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine) shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger with Keppel Corp’s O&M unit to create a larger O&M solutions business.
The deal appeared to attract the attention of short sellers, with short positions on Keppel increasing slightly, while short interest in Sembmarine went up significantly.
3,262.63
(-3.06%)
March
The STI slipped further at the end of March, as investor confidence took a hit on the back of bank failures in the United States and Europe, coupled with the Fed’s rate hike of a quarter of a percentage point.
In the US, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Mar 10 followed by Signature Bank two days later. They became the biggest bank failures the country had seen since the financial crisis of 2008. In Europe, global banking giant Credit Suisse suffered significant outflows. It was taken over by its rival, UBS, in a deal force-brokered by the Swiss government.
Amid the global banking uncertainty, the market capitalisation of Singapore’s finance sector stocks fell S$4.8 billion or 1.7 per cent to S$273.1 billion in March. All three local banks fell in value, with DBS and OCBC ending the month among the biggest losers – dropping S$3 billion and S$1.4 billion, respectively.
Separately, DBS experienced its second widespread banking disruption in 16 months, leading it to set up a special board committee to investigate the disruptions. Shares of Sembmarine also took a hit following news that its Brazilian unit was under probe for irregular practices.
Meanwhile, local telco Singtel entered talks to integrate its Indonesian partner Telkom’s fixed broadband business into the Singapore company's regional associate Telkomsel.
3,258.90
(-0.11%)
April
The STI rose 0.4 per cent in April as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) left monetary policy settings unchanged for the first time in more than a year, despite market expectations of a tightening.
Shares of Singapore property companies fell sharply in the last week of April after the government increased the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty rates for private property purchases. Sembmarine proposed to change its name to Seatrium, following its merger with Keppel O&M.
The US narrowly avoided a default on its debt, as Republicans and Democrats argued over spending cuts. The US dollar fell close to a two-month low after weaker economic data supported the view that the Fed would not need to raise rates much further.
3,270.51
(+0.36%)
May
The market dipped in May as the US Fed increased rates by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing rates to a range of 5to 5.25 per cent – the highest since August 2007.
Locally, three of Thailand’s blue-chip names began trading on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) as Singapore depository receipts on May 30.
Seatrium shares fell after it came to light that individuals from the company were being probed by CPIB for alleged corruption offences.
Majority shareholders of consumer electronics retailer Challenger Technologies made a voluntary unconditional cash offer of S$0.56 per share to take the company private and delist it from SGX. The cash offer was later bumped up to S$0.60 in June, with DigiTech – a bid vehicle of a consortium formed by Challenger’s majority shareholders – eventually taking the company private on Sep 11.
3,158.80
(-3.42%)
June
Investor optimism got a boost in June as the Fed put a pause on its rate hikes. The market capitalisation of STI constituents rose 2.8 per cent month on month, up S$14.6 billion, reaching S$538.4 billion.
Electric vehicle maker Nio was among the top gainers in market cap over the course of the month, as the company’s market value grew S$4.4 billion. This was followed by DBS, whose market value rose S$3.1 billion in the same period.
Flag carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) jumped S$2.2 billion in total market value. This followed the company’s strong recovery as demand for travel soared post-pandemic. Temasek, its major investor, also sold off a 1.85 per cent stake in SIA at the end of June.
Meanwhile, Seatrium joined the STI in June, replacing Keppel DC Reit. The move surprised market watchers, who had expected Seatrium’s inclusion in the STI to take place during the September review instead due to the wording of index ground rules.
3,205.91
(+1.49%)
December
Investor optimism took a dip at the start of the month, as fighting resumed in the Middle East following a one-week truce between Israel and Hamas. However, Asian markets rallied in mid-December after the US Fed paused interest rate hikes in its last meeting for the year and signalled that it would cut interest rates in 2024.
Meanwhile, shares of Cordlife Group dropped as much as 42.9 per cent, putting the counter close to its lowest level since its 2012 listing. The sell-off came a day after the Ministry of Health (MOH) said the cord blood bank would need to stop accepting new clients for six months because seven of its 22 cord-blood storage tanks were found at temperatures above acceptable limits.
The company’s board was informed of the issue in February 2023, but Cordlife said in response to SGX’s queries that it did not make any announcement as it felt there would be “no material impact on the financial performance of the group” for FY2022 and FY2023.
In other developments, shares of 17Live Group closed 18.8 per cent lower to end at S$3.15 on its first trading day, following the completion of its business combination with VTAC.
Separately, Manulife US Reit entered into a master restructuring plan to remedy its financial woes after all 12 of its lenders obtained the necessary approvals to raise funds through a mix of asset dispositions and a sponsor-lender loan.
3,240.27
(+5.44%)
November
The STI rebounded in November amid investor optimism after the US Fed kept interest rates unchanged for its second straight meeting.
Separately, the Gaza war came to a pause after nearly seven weeks of fighting. As part of the week-long ceasefire, Hamas released Israeli hostages while Israel released Palestinian prisoners. The release came after weeks of talks involving Israel, Hamas, Qatar, Egypt and the US.
Singtel’s Australian subsidiary, Optus, suffered a major outage in early November that affected millions of Australians. Shortly after, Optus’ chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin tendered her resignation – sending shares of Singtel to a 52-week low.
3,072.99
(+0.17%)
October
The STI dipped in October, following the outbreak of the Gaza war. The US narrowly avoided a shutdown of federal agencies, as Congress passed legislation to keep the government running until the following month.
In the local market, special-purpose acquisition company (Spac) Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation (VTAC) announced a proposed business combination with livestreaming operator 17Live. It was the first SGX Spac to do so.
Meanwhile, a technical issue at an Equinix data centre in Singapore led to the disruption of bank services at DBS and Citibank. MAS subsequently instructed both banks to conduct a “thorough investigation” into the disruption. The central bank added that it would take supervisory actions after conducting an investigation.
Genting Singapore and Marina Bay Sands both posted strong gains in Q3 as travel and tourism spending recovered.
The Singapore government announced it would form an inter-ministerial committee to consider further measures to strengthen its anti-money laundering regime. The government will also examine if it needs to extend its anti-money laundering requirements to cover high-value assets such as luxury cars, bags, liquor and ornaments.
3,067.74
(-4.65%)
September
The Singapore market dipped in September as the US Fed paused on interest rate hikes for the second time that year, following a slowing in inflation.
Asset manager BlackRock teamed up with SGX and MSCI to list a US$426 million climate action exchange-traded fund (ETF), the largest equity amount for an ETF launched in Singapore.
SGX announced it would implement a new organisational structure the following month, and appointed Michael Syn as its new president and head of its global markets division.
Separately, former People’s Action Party member and Cabinet minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam won by a landslide in the first contested presidential election in Singapore in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, MAS directed financial institutions to review any relationships with individuals linked to the high-profile money laundering scandal.
3,217.41
(-0.49%)
August
3,233.30
(-4.17%)
July
The Singapore market continued its upward trend in July, while two non-index stocks saw significant trading.
Shares of property and hospitality group Hotel Properties (HPL) fell as much as S$0.27 or 7 per cent to S$3.59 after news that Transport Minister S Iswaran and Ong Beng Seng had been arrested. Ong is the co-founder and managing director of HPL.
Shares of Manulife US Reit fell as much as 33.7 per cent after it announced a sharp decline in its portfolio valuation, which caused a breach of loan covenants. The US office Reit’s real estate portfolio valuation was cut by 14.6 per cent to US$1.6 billion as at Jun 30, 2023.
The devaluation was driven by higher discount rates and terminal capitalisation rates, as well as continued weakening of occupancy performance across the US office market. The Reit's aggregate leverage rose to 57 per cent due to the lower valuation, passing the 50 per cent limit set by MAS.
Separately, a cross-border trading link between Singapore and India became fully operational in July, settling a five-year dispute between the National Stock Exchange of India and SGX over the latter’s plan to introduce single-stock futures for some of India’s largest companies. With the trading link, derivative contracts with a notional value of about US$7.5 billion that were traded in Singapore were shifted to India.
The US Fed raised interest rates by another quarter percentage point, in a much-anticipated move by markets. The hike brought rates to between 5.25 and 5.5 per cent – the highest level in more than two decades.
3,373.98
(+5.24%)
Jan 3,365.67
(+3.52%)
Feb 3,262.63
(-3.06%)
Mar
3,258.9
(-0.11%)
APR
3,270.51
(+0.36%)
MAY
3,158.8
(-3.42%)
JUN
3,205.91
(+1.49%)
JUL
3,373.98
(+5.24%)
AUG
3,233.3
(-4.17%)
SEP
3,217.41
(-0.49%)
OCT
3,067.74
(-4.65%)
NOV
3,072.99
(+0.17%)
DEC
2,949.04
(+1.6%)
The STI dipped in August, as local banks joined a list of financial institutions linked to a major money laundering investigation involving over S$2.8 billion of assets in Singapore. DBS and Bank of Singapore were creditors to the money laundering suspects.
Unitholders of Sabana Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Sabana Reit) voted to remove the manager, and direct its trustee to set up an internal manager. This is the first time a local Reit has embarked on the internally managed model.
Meanwhile, SGX launched structured certificates, becoming the first exchange in Asia to list such products.
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG PHOTO: TREVOR TAN, ST
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI, ST
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3,365.67
(+3.52%)
3,262.63
(-3.06%)
3,365.67
(+3.52%)
3,258.90
(-0.11%)
3,270.51
(+0.36%)
3,205.91
(+1.49%)
3,158.80
(-3.42%)
3,233.30
(-4.17%)
3,217.41
(-0.49%)
3,373.98
(+5.24%)
3,072.99
(+0.17%)
BTVISUAL:
CHAYTANYA BANDISHTE, HYRIE RAHMAT
Dec
3,240.27
(+5.44%)