Outlook still soft as S'pore stocks look set for 15% loss this year: analysts

Singapore

SINGAPORE's stocks are set for a 15 per cent tumble this year, putting them in the same league as Greece. Baring Asset Management and UBS Group say shares need to get even cheaper before they're prepared to buy.

Commodity trader Noble Group and oil-rig builder Sembcorp Marine fell at least 46 per cent in 2015 through Monday amid a raw-material price rout, while DBS Group Holdings has been the biggest drag on the Straits Times Index as property prices decline and bad debts increase. Among developed markets tracked by Bloomberg, the only benchmark measure that has fared worse is the ASE Index in Athens, which is poised for a 24 per cent plunge.

"While some value could emerge if Singapore drops another 10 per cent, there's not a lot of things to be wildly excited about Singapore at the moment," said Lim Soo Hai, a Hong Kong-based money manager at Baring. "Cheap valuations aren't a good enough reason why these stocks would deliver the kind of performance we're looking for. The growth outlook is still quite soft for 2016." Following this year's slump, shares on the MSCI Singapore Index trade at 1.1 times the value of its companies' net assets, compared with a multiple of 2 on a measure of global equities. The gap between the two widened this month to the most since May 2003. The MSCI All-Country World Index is h…