STI blue chips expected to cut dividends as pandemic slashes profits

Singapore

WITH some corporates slashing dividends or cancelling them in recent weeks, investors now worry that Straits Times Index (STI) components - many of them economy bellwethers and defensive dividend stocks - may follow suit amid the crushing impact from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Among the first to release quarterly financial results for the current earnings season, SPH Reit cut its distribution per unit (DPU) to just 20 per cent of income available for distribution. The result was a 78.7 per cent decline in its DPU despite better performance for the quarter ended February.