With a wonky Fed beacon, Singapore banks face foggy times ahead

Published Wed, Mar 4, 2020 · 07:17 AM

WITH the surprise rate cut by the US Federal Reserve overnight, some analysts are likely tearing up their earnings and dividend estimates for the Singapore banks for 2020.

As it is, Singapore banks had in February warned of a revenue impact of just 1-2 per cent from the novel coronavirus outbreak, though with a caveat that it should break by the middle of this year.

Still, shares of banks here are down year to date. Interestingly, some 60 per cent of share buybacks recorded in February this year - at S$68 million, at least doubling from both a month ago, and a year ago - came from the S$43 million worth of share buybacks by DBS, Singapore Exchange (SGX) data showed.

Share buybacks can be a sign that a company deems the shares are undervalued such that they can be bought at depressed prices for employee compensation plans or for lo…