S'pore August market cap flat after July's nine-month high

Singapore

SINGAPORE stocks lost a bit of ground in August, with the total value of the market dropping marginally to S$860 billion from July's nine-month high of S$860.4 billion.

But the August overall market capitalisation is still higher than end-2015's S$856.4 billion. In year-on-year terms, it is up 0.7 per cent from August 2015's S$853.6 billion.

Losers outnumbered gainers 352 to 267.

The 30 stocks of the Straits Times Index (STI) benchmark underperformed the rest of the market, declining 1.7 per cent to S$400.4 billion versus July. The STI closed August at 2,820.59, still below end-2015's 2,882.

Outcomes were scattered across industry and size.

Agriculture companies posted the strongest gain during August, as market value increased 4 per cent to S$10 billion.

Commerce companies, dominated by the Jardine group, posted the next-strongest increase of 3.3 per cent to a value of S$156.9 billion. The market cap of Jardine Matheson Holdings (JMH) increased by 1.8 per cent to S$58.1 billion, while Jardine Strategic Holdings's (JSH) market cap grew 6.3 per cent or S$2.9 billion to S$49.3 billion - the biggest gain in August in dollar terms.

Transportation, storage, and communications companies, however, suffered a 4.8 per cent drop in value to S$114.6 billion - the largest decline across all industries.

Finance companies posted just a 0.1 per cent increase to S$190.6 billion, amid mounting expectations for a US Federal Reserve rate hike this year.

None of the Big Three banks had a positive month. DBS Group Holdings's market value suffered the largest loss of 2.7 per cent to S$37.9 billion, while UOB shed 1 per cent to S$29.2 billion. OCBC Bank's drop was the least severe - a decline of just 0.1 per cent to S$36 billion.

There were no changes in the rankings of the top 12 largest companies. Among the five biggest - Singtel, Prudential, JMH, JSH, and DBS - only Singtel and DBS lost value in August.

Singtel, still the biggest company at S$64.1 billion, lost 3.8 per cent in market cap - a S$2.5 billion decline, representing the biggest loss in dollar terms.

Dairy Farm International Holdings jumped two spots to rank 13th-largest in market cap, displacing CapitaLand and Singapore Airlines, which each dropped one place to rank 14th and 15th respectively.

The performance of commodity players Olam International and Noble Group was mixed. While Olam was one of the biggest gainers in August over July - posting an increase of S$481.5 million to S$5.9 billion - Noble was one of the biggest losers, with a S$609 million decline to S$1.6 billion.

In terms of company size, the larger companies did better in August than the smaller ones, compared to July. The largest 10 per cent of companies by market value increased their market cap by 0.2 per cent, compared to a 11.6 per cent decline for the smallest 10 per cent of companies.

This was also the case in year-on-year terms. Compared to August 2015, the largest 10 per cent of companies by market value posted a 1.7 per cent increase.

In stark contrast, the smallest 10 per cent registered a deep 53.9 per cent drop.