OREANDA-NEWS. The three largest telecommunication stocks in Singapore – Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), StarHub, and M1 – have a combined market capitalisation of S\\$78.9 billion. The sector is made up of household names to Singaporeans in addition to being recognized by international investment funds. In its recently released Annual Report for 2015 Singtel noted that after Temasek Holdings’ 51% share ownership of SingTel, Singapore shareholders held approximately 19% of the issued capital, while US/Canada and Europe combined held 26% of the issued share capital. Over the past three years, the total return of SingTel was 50%.

Amidst yesterday’s regional and broad market declines, the three mobile telecommunication providers Singtel, Starhub and M1 averaged a 0.5% gain, with Singtel gaining 0.2%, Starhub unchanged and M1 gaining 1.2%. China’s CSI 300 Index decline of 6.8% yesterday weighed the region with the Straits Times Index (STI) losing 1.7%.

As a capitalisation-weighted sector, Telecommunications provided a defensive tone in the month of June, generated a 1.6% price gain while the STI declined 2.2%. This also beat the MSCI World Telecommunication Service Index which declined 0.5% over June.

The three stocks trade at an average price-earnings ratio of 18.2 and have an average dividend yield of 5.0%. In the year thus far, the three stocks have averaged a -0.9% price change, and 0.8% dividend boosted returns. This has brought  their one-year and three-year dividend adjusted returns to 4.8% and 44.2% respectively. Clicking on the Stock name below will link to the company profile in SGX StockFacts.

Name SGX Code % Price Change [8 July] % Price Change YTD % Change - Dividend Adj. YTD % Change - Dividend Adj. [1 Year] % Change - Dividend Adj.  [3 Years] Div. Ind Yld. in %
Singapore Telecommunications Z74 0.2 11.0 11.0 17.1 49.6 4.0
StarHub CC3 0.0 -4.1 -1.8 0.9 30.7 5.0
M1 B2F 1.2 -9.7 -6.8 -3.7 52.2 5.8
Average   0.5 -0.9 0.8 4.8 44.2 5.0

Source: SGX StockFacts (Data as of 8 July)

Name SGX Code Mkt. Cap. in S\\$ mm Price vs. 12M High % Price vs. 12M Low % P/E
Singapore Telecommunications Z74 68,994 -5.3 19.3 18.3
StarHub CC3 6,876 -10.8 7.6 19.1
M1 B2F 3,048 -18.3 3.2 17.1

Source: SGX StockFacts (Data as of 8 July)

Please note that the Telecommunication Sector has not always generated a defensive tone in bouts of market weakness, for instance in September 2014 and October 2014, the Sector was weaker than the STI, with Healthcare the strongest sector in September 2014 and REITs the strongest sector in October 2014. A chart of these different key GICS® sector performances over the past 12 months is illustrated below.