STI's 10-year returns beat those of US, HK indices

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Business Times
Published September 13, 2011

STI's 10-year returns beat those of US, HK indices
2001-2010 saw 61.4% price return, or annualised return of 4.9%

By JAMIE LEE

CONTRARY to perception, the Straits Times Index (STI) has made decent returns when compared to the US indices and that of competitor Hong Kong, data compiled by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) yesterday showed.

From 2001 to 2010, the STI eked out price returns of 61.4 per cent, which works out to an annualised return of about 5 per cent.

By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average made 7.3 per cent in price returns, or an annualised return of 0.7 per cent. The S&P 500 fared worse, earning negative 4.7 per cent over the five years, or an annualised return of negative 0.5 per cent. These comparisons were made without converting to Sing dollars.

In the 10 years, the STI also outperformed the Hang Seng Index (HSI), which earned 52.6 per cent in price returns, or 4.3 per cent in annualised returns.

The STI also beat the HSI last year, and year to date.

An exception was from 2006 to 2010, when the STI returned some 40 per cent in price-return terms, but the HSI surged ahead with 54.8 per cent in returns.

In terms of returns of different Singapore asset classes, the STI's 10-year annualised performance of 4.9 per cent also beat that of the property price index, which stood at 3.9 per cent.

However, as a testament to the recent strong performance in property, the property price index made annualised returns of 17.6 per cent last year, outperforming STI's 10.1 per cent return.

Another set of SGX data showed that the amount of trading done during the now-defunct lunch break translates to an average of about 8 per cent of the securities daily trading value.

The figures also indicate little change to trading behaviour after uninterrupted trading was introduced.

Trading remains most active in value terms in the first half hour after the market opens, and the last half hour before the close.

The activity also continue to decline progressively from 9am to about 1pm, before picking up and accelerating towards the end of the day, creating a distinct 'U-shape' trading pattern.

The impact from the added 90 minutes of trading is less conclusive, since the data only tracks trading activity over a one-month period from Aug 1, the day lunch break was scrapped.

Against a backdrop of heightened volatility, the value of total securities turnover in August stood at $41.4 billion, up 41.5 per cent over the month.

In the one month or so that SGX had moved into eight hours of uninterrupted trading, trades during the 90 minutes ranged between 5 per cent and 17 per cent of the day's traded value.

In particular, SGX saw greater-than-usual trading value added then on Aug 8 and Aug 10 at 17 per cent and 14 per cent. These two days were separated by a day of market closure due to a public holiday - which saw Asian peers selling down after taking cues from Wall Street - prompting Singapore players to catch up the next day.
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