OREANDA-NEWS. The MSCI World Transportation Index is made up of the largest transportation stocks globally, with a combined market capitalisation of US$1.03 trillion. This index has averaged a 0.2% total return in Singapore dollar terms in the year thus far. This global index trades at a price-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 17.7 and 2.7 respectively, and maintains a dividend yield of 2.3%.

By comparison, the 10 largest Transportation stocks listed on SGX have averaged a 7.5% total return in the year thus far, taking their one-year and three-year returns to 9.8% and 37.9% respectively. The 10 stocks represent five different fields of the Transport business – including Airlines, Road and Rail, Transportation Infrastructure, Air Freight, and Logistics and Marine.

Singapore’s Transport Sector

The 10 largest active transport stocks listed on Singapore Exchange (SGX) by market value have a combined market capitalisation of S$45.4 billion. This includes five components of the Straits Times Index (STI) – Singapore Airlines, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, ComfortDelGro Corporation, SIA Engineering Company and SATS. The other five are Singapore Post, Neptune Orient Lines, SMRT Corporation, CWT and China Merchants Holdings (Pacific).

In comparison, these 10 largest transport stocks listed on SGX trade at an average P/E ratio of 21.5, which reflects the average price investors are willing to pay for every dollar these 10 stocks earn. These 10 stocks also maintain an average dividend yield of 4.2%. This compares with an average dividend yield of 4.0% for the Straits Times Index (STI) and interest yield of around 2.9% for the Singapore Fixed Income (SFI) Index.

Among the 10 stocks categorised to the transport sector, the five best performers in the year thus far were SATS, CWT, ComfortDelGro Corporation, Neptune Orient Lines and China Merchants Holdings (Pacific). Together, these five stocks averaged a 20.7% year-to-date total return.

Recent Financial Results

The sixth largest of these stocks, Singapore Post, reported its financial results for the quarter ended 30 Sept yesterday.

Singapore Post operates and provides postal, logistics, and retail services in Singapore and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Mail, Logistics, and Retail & e-commerce. The Mail segment offers services for collecting, sorting, transporting, and distributing domestic and international mail, as well as sells philatelic products. The Logistics segment offers a range of logistics solutions, including freight, warehousing, domestic and international distribution, and delivery services. The Retail & e-commerce segment provides various products and services, such as agency services, financial services, and front-end e-commerce solutions.

In the second quarter of FY15/16 ended 30 September 2015, Singapore Post posted a 19.5% YoY increase in revenue, which resulted in an 39.1% YoY jump in net profit to S$54.4 million. SingPost's basic EPS also rose 41.7%, from 1.63 cents in 2Q 2014 to 2.31 cents in 2Q 2015.


The table below details the 10 largest transport stocks and is sorted by market capitalisation. Note that clicking on a stock name will take you directly to its page on SGX StockFacts.

Name SGX Code Mkt. Cap. in S$ mm % Price Change YTD % Change - Dividend Adj. YTD % Change - Dividend Adj.  [3 Years] Div. Ind Yld. in %
Singapore Airlines C6L 12,426 -8.5 -7.0 9.6 2.1
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust NS8U 6,653 -16.5 -9.9 -1.5 9.1
ComfortDelGro Corporation C52 6,592 18.1 21.4 104.1 2.8
SIA Engineering Company S59 4,413 -6.9 -4.7 5.6 3.7
SATS S58 4,249 25.9 28.8 57.4 3.7
Singapore Post S08 4,064 -1.6 1.6 87.7 3.4
Neptune Orient Lines N03 2,493 14.3 14.3 -18.3 N/A
SMRT Corporation S53 2,179 -9.5 -8.4 -11.3 2.3
CWT C14 1,189 23.8 28.1 69.6 3.5
China Merchants Holdings (Pacific) C22 1,117 3.4 10.9 76.2 7.0
Average     4.2 7.5 37.9 4.2

On average, the stocks were trading 16.0% below their 12-month highs and 21.8% above their 12-month lows. The five stocks trading closest to their 12-month highs were SATS, ComfortDelGro Corporation, Singapore Post, China Merchants Holdings (Pacific) and CWT.

The next 10 largest capitalised stocks that represent the transport sector after those tabled above are Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation, Tiger Airways Holdings, SBS Transit, Vibrant Group, Rickmers Maritime, Poh Tiong Choon Logistics, Singapore Shipping Corporation, Samudera Shipping Line, Ramba Energy and Penguin International.