Are sell-offs at Sembcorp, ST Engineering and SIA after their earnings reports a harbinger of doom?

The market’s reaction to recent filings suggests that Singapore investors are eager to pay – perhaps even overpay – for companies delivering good financial performance

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Ben Paul

Published Mon, Aug 25, 2025 · 07:00 AM

Just before its earnings report, ST Engineering’s price-to-earnings ratio had been stretched to 32 times, while its dividend yield had compressed to less than 2%. PHOTO: BT FILE

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[SINGAPORE] The recent reporting season has been something of a reality check for bullish investors in the Singapore market, with a number of high-flying Straits Times Index (STI) components suffering big sell-offs after releasing their financial numbers.

Most notably, ST Engineering – which has been the best-performing STI component this year – tumbled nearly 6.3 per cent on Aug 14, after reporting results for the first half of 2025 that were hardly disappointing. Earnings for the six months climbed 19.7 per cent to S$402.8 million, on a 7.2 per cent rise in revenue to S$5.92 billion.

The company also said that it secured new contracts worth S$9.1 billion in H1 2025, which put its order book at the end of the period at S$31.2 billion.

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Financial results Straits Times Index Singapore Stocks ST Engineering sembcorp industries Singapore Airlines

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