SGX: Year-to-Date Highlights Of Singapore's Biggest Consumer Plays

• Together, the MSCI AC Asia (Ex JP) Consumer Discretionary and MSCI AC Asia (Ex JP) Consumer Staples Indices have averaged an 8.1% decline in the year to date. This has coincided with an average 4.6% decline for Singapore’s 30 largest capitalised consumer plays.
• Among Singapore’s 30 largest capitalised consumer plays, the 15 Consumer Discretionary Stocks averaged a 5.7% decline, while the 15 Consumer Staple stocks averaged a 3.5% decline.
• Among the 15 Consumer Staple stocks, Agriculture Products performed the strongest in the year-to-date, with Wilmar International, Golden Agri-Resources, First Resources and Bumitama Agri all gaining, averaging a 4.3% total return. CPO prices have gained 5.0% since end-2015 vs. the Thomson Reuters CRB Agriculture Producers Index declining 9.3%.
•  

Singapore stocks with a focus on consumers are generally categorised between Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples. The universal definition of a Consumer Discretionary Stock is that its business sells non-essential goods or services to a consumer, whereas a Consumer Staple stock sells essential goods or services.

The 30 largest consumer plays have a combined market capitalisation of almost S$120 billion and generated a 4.6% decline in year-to-date total return. Amongst the 30 stocks, both the Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary sectors consist of 15 stocks each. The 15 Consumer Staple stocks have averaged a year-to-date decline of 3.5% compared to the 15 Consumer Discretionary stocks averaging a declining 5.7%.

Within the subsectors with multiple representation, Agriculture Products performed the strongest with Wilmar International, Golden Agri-Resources, First Resources and Bumitama Agri all gaining over the period. Together the four stocks averaged a 4.3% total return. Meanwhile, Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines were the least strongest segment with multiple representation, declining an average of 7.9%.

Source: SGX, Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (data as of 15 February 2016)

**Tan Chong International is listed on GlobalQuote

As tabled above, the strongest stock across the30 largest consumer stocks in the year thus far were both Consumer Discretionary plays and subsidiaries of Jardine Strategic Holdings. Jardine Cycle & Carriage gained 12.1% compared to a 5.8% gain in SGD terms for the Jakarta Composite Index. Mandarin Oriental  declined 21.0% which has coincided with the Hang Seng Index declining 15.1% in SGD terms, and the MSCI Europe Index declining 10.4% in SGD terms.

Palm Oil Focus Across Four Agriculture Product stocks

As noted above, the consumer segment with multiple representation that performed the strongest in the year thus far was Agricultural Products. Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices have gained 5.0% since the end of 2015, while the Thomson Reuters CRB Agriculture Producers Index has declined 9.3%.

Wilmar’s business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseed crushing, edible oil refining, sugar milling and refining, specialty fat, oleo chemical, biodiesel and fertiliser manufacturing and grain processing. Golden Agri-Resources is the world's second-largest palm oil plantation company with a total planted area of 484,221 hectares (including smallholders) as at 30 September 2015, located in Indonesia. Golden Agri-Resources announced yesterday that it will report unaudited financial results for the full year ended 31 December 2015 after the Monday 29 February close.

First Resources is also a palm oil producer managing over 190,000 hectares of oil palm plantations across the Riau, East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia. Bumitama Agri is an investment holding company, engages in the production and trading of CPO, palm kernel (PK), and related products for refineries in Indonesia. The table below details the 30 stocks, and is sorted according to market capitalisation. Please click on each stock to visit its profile page on SGX StockFacts. Please note GuocoLeisure changed  its name to GL in November 2015.

Source: SGX, Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (data as of 15 February 2016)

*Note prices are in SGD equivalents terms

**Tan Chong International is listed on GlobalQuote