A market rally over the past several weeks has stirred the interest of many investors as the STI recovered a fabulous 30% off its recent low on 9 March to close at nearly 1,900 points yesterday (Tues, Apr 14).
We ran a screen based on this week’s closing prices to check which stocks had the best year-to-date total return (capital gain plus reinvested dividends).
Leading in absolute gains were large cap stocks such as the Jardine group of companies, OCBC, SGX, Keppel Corp and Sembcorp Marine. But it was mainly the small caps which gave the highest percentage return.
In fact, of 24 stocks that we found with year-to-date total returns exceeding 50%, only five were not small cap stocks. And of these five, 3 were in Greater China’s property market.
In descending order of market cap, the five are:
1) High-end Chinese residential property developer, Yanlord;
2) Real estate investment trust of retail malls in China, Capitaretail;
3) Leading marine fuel supplier, Chemoil;
4) Real estate investment trust of retail malls in Hong Kong, Fortune REIT; and
5) Precision plastic injection molding contract manufacturer, Hi-P.
| Company |
Market Cap |
Last |
PE |
Total return(YTD) |
| YANLORD LAND | S$2,579,872,000 | $1.42 | 11.5 X | 59% |
| CAPITARETAIL | 549,123,008 | 0.89 | 13.8 | 58% |
| CHEMOIL ENERGY | 519,174,112 | 0.40 | 7.3 | 56% |
| FORTUNE REIT | 453,900,704 | 0.55 | Loss making | 53% |
| HI-P INTERNATIONAL | 448,023,392 | 0.51 | 4.4 | 68% |
What’s happening in China’s property market?
Brokers in China are bullish over its property market, citing positive property sales data and growth in residential mortgage loans, but a leading property expert has said the current rebound is unsustainable.
Official figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics show that the volume of real estate sales in 1Q09 has risen 8.2% from a year earlier. While overall average prices are not improving, property prices in urban areas rose 0.2% in March, putting an end to seven consecutive months of price falls.
However, Cao Jianhai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that housing prices are likely to collapse in 2011, followed by many years of stagnation.
Mr Cao’s rationale is that average property prices are now 10 to 12 times the average income, meaning that as much as 60% of a homebuyer's monthly income now to go to mortgage repayments.
Chemoil - Leading supplier of marine bunker fuel
Chemoil operates refineries and terminals and distributes fuel from a handful of US ports (including New York and Los Angeles), and in Colombia, the Netherlands, Panama, and Singapore.
It delivers fuel to its clients’ container vessels and bulk carriers using tankers, barges and tugboats that it owns and operates.
The leading supplier of bunker fuel reported a 55% yoy increase in net profits to US$47.1 million for FY08, despite a drop in bunker prices approaching 30% in the fourth quarter.
Increase in sales volumes due to new retail operations in the Middle East and Singapore, as well as successful hedging had contributed to its FY08 earnings growth.
Major oil companies are not really interested in transporting fuels into these markets, opening up huge growth possibilities for independent players such as Chemoil.
Related story: CHEMOIL: Fuelling the engines of trade at the world's busiest ports
Hi-P - Spunky electronics contract manufacturer
Most tech companies are bemoaning an uncertain outlook but Hi-P’s FY08 results had surprised analysts on the upside, with net cash generated from operations surging a whopping 151% yoy to S$164.8 million.
The contract manufacturer for wireless telecommunications and consumer electronics goods had grown FY08 net earnings 70.5%. Gross profit margin improved by 5% and gross gearing was 1%.
Net cash per share was 15 cents, translating to price to net cash of only 2X when its FY08 results were announced on 24 Feb 2009. Subsequently, its stock price ran from 32.5 cents all the way to 51.5 cents yesterday, spurred by the company's aggressive share buybacks.
Even with a year-to-date price gain of 68%, the stock's price to net cash is still low at 3.4X.
Related story: HI-P: Exceeding $1 b in sales for first time in 28 years
| Year-to-date top gainers (total return) |
Monday close
|
YTD total return (%) |
Market cap (S$) |
| BAN JOO | S$0.04 | 167 | 181,393,904 |
| KXD DIGITAL | 0.01 | 100 | 7,856,578 |
| GUL TECHNOLOGIES | 0.05 | 100 | 46,553,020 |
| MEDTECS INTL | 0.04 | 100 | 17,396,230 |
| OSIM INTL | 0.13 | 89 | 86,092,032 |
| SILVERLAKE AXIS | 0.16 | 76 | 173,895,696 |
| IPC CORP | 0.11 | 75 | 55,504,440 |
| HI-P INTL | 0.51 | 68 | 448,023,392 |
| HTL INTL | 0.15 | 67 | 62,484,500 |
| EAGLE BRAND | 0.03 | 67 | 28,961,520 |
| LUYE PHARMACEUTICAL | 0.48 | 66 | 236,198,304 |
| JAPAN LAND | 0.31 | 61 | 39,687,180 |
| PSL HOLDINGS | 0.14 | 59 | 18,562,500 |
| YANLORD LAND | 1.42 | 59 | 2,579,872,000 |
| MERMAID MARITIME | 0.34 | 58 | 184,009,792 |
| Year-to-date top gainers (market cap) |
Tuesday close price |
YTD absolute return |
Market cap |
| JARDINE MATHESON | S$32.97 | S$6.30 | S$20,594,003,968 |
| JARDINE CYCLE & CARRIAGE | 14.08 | 4.16 | 4,957,414,912 |
| JARDINE STRATEGIC | 16.93 | 2.52 | 18,504,814,592 |
| VENTURE CORP | 5.66 | 1.18 | 1,552,274,944 |
| LYXOR-ETF IND-SD | 10.34 | 1.13 | 62,040,008 |
| KEPPEL CORP | 5.58 | 1.07 | 8,889,632,768 |
| SINGAPORE EXCHANGE | 6.18 | 0.93 | 6,607,283,200 |
| SINGAPORE PETROLEUM | 3.13 | 0.79 | 1,616,285,952 |
| OCBC BANK | 5.82 | 0.64 | 18,196,609,024 |
| DAIRY FARM | 6.82 | 0.52 | 9,187,051,520 |
| OLAM INTERNATIONAL | 1.71 | 0.49 | 2,929,803,008 |
| SEMBCORP MARINE | 2.23 | 0.47 | 4,619,253,760 |
| YANLORD LAND | 1.43 | 0.47 | 2,598,040,064 |
