Small cap index's non-Reit top performers returned 36.5% in year to date: SGX

THE five best performing non-Reit (real estate investment trust) constituents of the FTSE ST Small Cap Index averaged a total return of 36.5 per cent in the year to date (YTD) as at Oct 4, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) said on Monday evening.

In terms of YTD total return, the top five were Indofood Agri Resources (+71.7 per cent), Hi-P International (+33.8 per cent), QAF (+33.8 per cent), Hong Leong Asia (+23.5 per cent) and Koufu Group (+19.7 per cent). This brings their average one-year total return to 17 per cent.

These five stocks are categorised in the sectors of consumer staples (within the sub-segments of food manufacturing and restaurant operations), electronics manufacturing and construction machinery. They either derive growing revenues from the Asia-Pacific excluding Singapore, or are building their presence beyond domestic shores.

For Indofood Agri Resources, its parent Indofood Sukses Makmur - controlled by Indonesian tycoon Anthony Salim - has been acquiring shares of the subsidiary in the open market since its buyout offer lapsed in June, SGX noted.

The FTSE ST Small Cap Index is a free float-adjusted, market cap-weighted index, representing the performance of small-cap counters that pass size, free float and liquidity screens, and trade on the SGX's main board.

It has 49 constituents - comprising 20 Reits and 29 companies - with a combined market cap of about S$37 billion, ranging from S$45 million to nearly S$3 billion, the bourse operator said. Beyond the index, there are about another 300 stocks listed on SGX that fall within this market cap range.

Reit constituents carry a weighting of about 71.9 per cent in the index, while companies account for the remaining 28.1 per cent.

In the YTD as at Oct 4, the index generated a total return of 7.2 per cent, higher than the total returns of 3.9 per cent and 5.8 per cent for the benchmark Straits Times Index and the broader FTSE ST All-Share Index respectively.

Meanwhile, the non-Reit worst performers in the YTD on the Small Cap Index were Japfa (-35.8 per cent), mm2 Asia (-30.2 per cent), BreadTalk Group (-25.4 per cent), Citic Envirotech (-22.2 per cent), and Duty Free International (-20.2 per cent). These five stocks averaged a total return of 26.7 per cent over the period.

Table: The 10 best-performing, non-Reit constituents of the FTSE ST Small Cap Index, sorted by YTD total returns