Singapore stocks are Asia’s best performers in terms of dividend yield, with main counters in the telco, banking and industrials sectors all delivering solid returns.

The FTSE Singapore Index maintained a yield of 3.74 per cent as of March 31, according to monthly indices that compare stock market performances in the region.

Taiwan was second at 3.66 per cent, followed by Thailand’s 3.24 per cent and Malaysia on 3.04 per cent.

FTSE Hong Kong had a dividend yield of 2.39 per cent. The average of all 10 indices of Asian economies was 2.64 per cent.

Dividend yield is a ratio tracking a counter’s dividend payouts in the past 12 months relative to its share price.

While the local stock market faces niggling issues of stagnant turnover, it is also known for stable yield plays that reward long-term investors. The yield hunters often favour property trusts, but other segments are just as rewarding, Singapore Exchange (SGX) market strategist Geoff Howie noted.

“In total, 40 per cent of the constituents of the FTSE All-World Index currently qualify for the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index. However, 70 per cent of Singapore’s constituents in the FTSE All-World Index qualify for the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index,” he added.

The FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index excludes all property trusts.

SGX data shows Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Trust is the best performer among the Singapore-listed stocks on the global index, with a yield of 10.8 per cent after it closed at 39.5 US cents yesterday.

Telco stocks have also been rewarding. M1, which closed at $2.13, sported the second best yield of 6.1 per cent. StarHub was third with 5.9 per cent and Singtel fourth on 4.5 per cent. StarHub closed at $2.87 yesterday and Singtel at $3.88.

Singapore Press Holdings, with a dividend yield of 4.2 per cent, was seventh on the list of best dividend stocks in Singapore. The company will announce its second-quarter results today.

In the banking sector, OCBC Bank tabled the best yield at 3.8 per cent, followed by United Overseas Bank at 3.2 per cent, and DBS at 3.1 per cent.

This article was first published on Apr 12 2017.
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Resale prices of non-landed private homes rose for the fifth straight month in March to hit a 2½-year high, according to data out yesterday.

Flash estimates put SRX Property’s private resale index at 168.8 last month, the highest since September 2014.

In other bullish indicators, the number of units sold improved by over 50 per cent from February while buyers hiked their asking prices from below perceived market rates, where they had been languishing for many months.

Private resale prices climbed 0.5 per cent in March from April, easing though from the upwardly revised rise of 1.1 per cent in February. Prices rose 1 per cent in January, 0.3 per cent in December and 0.6 per cent in November last year.

Resale prices last month were 2.2 per cent higher than in March 2016, though still down by 5.5 per cent from their recent peak in January 2014.

Prices again increased across all locations, rising 0.4 per cent month on month in prime districts, 0.7 per cent on the city fringes and 0.4 per cent in outlying areas.

An estimated 1,058 units changed hands in March, up 51.8 per cent from the 697 units resold in February.

Resale volume last month was 77.5 per cent higher than the 596 units resold in March 2016 but still down 48.4 per cent from its peak of 2,050 units in April 2010.

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

The tender for the first private home and retail site on offer to developers at the upcoming Bidadari housing estate is no ordinary one.

The tender document for the 2.54ha site, set to yield 825 homes as well as shops, comes with a raft of stipulations aimed at shaping the site into a landmark project. It is envisioned as a “community in a garden” which is environmentally sustainable and car-lite.

Developers also have to build a community centre and neighbourhood police branch, and are strongly encouraged to work with tenants of the retail portion on productivity initiatives.

Analysts note the tender includes many more requirements than for typical residential sale sites – more on par with those for major Government Land Sales (GLS) commercial sites.

In a first for a site outside the Central Business District, bidding developers will be required to reduce the number of car-park spaces from the usual level.

Read also: First land parcel for private homes in Bidadari up for sale

The first site to have this requirement was a mixed-use site at Central Boulevard, acquired for $2.57 billion by a subsidiary of IOI Properties last year.

In the tender document for the Upper Serangoon site, the Housing Board – the appointed land sales agent – stipulated the developer “is required to apply to the Land Transport Authority to take up a 20 per cent reduction under the range-based car-parking standards for the residential component”.

An LTA spokesman said that “given the excellent connectivity to public transport network and support for walking and cycling, a lower car-parking provision under the prevailing range-based car-parking standard is in line with the move towards a car-lite Singapore”.

The project is next to Woodleigh MRT station.

Mr Ong Teck Hui, JLL’s national director of research and consultancy, said it was “significant” that the developer’s proposal will be subject to design reviews by a panel chaired by HDB.

He said this is a requirement of prominent GLS sites, including recent ones like the Central Boulevard site, Lendlease’s Paya Lebar Quarter, as well as older sites such as one adjacent to Raffles Hotel and another site which has become Chijmes.

He singled out the productivity initiatives as being particularly interesting.

The successful bidder is “strongly encouraged to work with” tenants of its coffee shops, restaurants, retail and entertainment outlets to adopt productivity initiatives.

These include digital services that enable automated ordering and payment, as well as investing in self-check out systems.

Read also: 4-room BTO flats in Kallang, Bidadari a hit

Despite the numerous conditions, analysts expect bidding for the site to be competitive.

Mr Ong expects seven to 10 bidders, though one deterrent is the “high absolute land price” owing to the large size of the development.

Mr Desmond Sim, CBRE’s head of South-east Asia research, expects 10 to 14 bids.

He said: “Even with more stringent tender conditions, developers will still be interested because of the lack of development sites in the market. You can look at the community centre and police post as a downer on margins, but they can also be seen as creating catchment for commercial space.”

The tender for the 99-year leasehold site closes on June 13.

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

A retired Singapore Polytechnic lecturer yesterday pleaded guilty to inciting violence, via a Facebook page he created while pretending to be someone else.

On the Act For Singapore (AFS) Facebook page he created in 2014 under the name “Emett Haqq”, Tang Koon Huat posted racially offensive barbs calling on vigilantes to beat up a Briton who had been convicted earlier in a road rage incident.

On Jan 14 last year, Mr Alan Benjamin Maybury was given the maximum $5,000 fine for punching a teen driver. Later that day, Tang posted on the page that it was time to form a “Singaporean vigilante group to go to beat up troublesome” Caucasians in the drinking joints.

Tang, now 63 and retired, pleaded guilty yesterday to one of two charges of communicating an electronic record containing an incitement to violence on Jan 14 last year.

Mr Maybury, 35, had hit 19-year-old polytechnic student Lum Kwok Weng after an accident on Nov 30, 2014 around 1.30am.

Read also: NUS prof suspended over remarks on imam case

Mr Lum had lost control of his car on a bend along South Buona Vista Road, hitting a taxi head-on. Mr Maybury was on his way home with his wife in the taxi.

The former consultant, who had two glasses of champagne, got out, shouted at Mr Lum and punched him in the face.

Tang was angered that Mr Maybury was only given a fine.

After a report by a member of the public on Jan 19, police identified Tang to be “Emett Haqq” and arrested him on April 15.

Read also: Students explain the meanings of their Chinese names to fight racism

Tang admitted he had created the AFS page because of his negative perceptions of foreigners and the declining population of “native Singaporeans”.

Tang’s lawyer Alfred Dodwell asked for time to prepare a submission on sentencing, arguing that the case would have aneffect on freedom of speech and postings on social media.

He is asking that a fine be imposed on his client, who is “extremely remorseful”.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani is seeking a three-month sentence as a “starting point”.

The case has been adjourned to May 16. The maximum penalty for the offence is five years’ jail and a fine.

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

Residents in Jurong West were cut off from the Internet yesterday afternoon because of a cut cable.

Some phone lines and TV services were also disrupted, as the incident affected fibre network access.

According to comments on Facebook, some customers started encountering problems around 4.30pm.

In a statement on its Facebook page at 5.22pm, Singtel said fibre network operator NetLink Trust had confirmed that services were affected by a cut cable in the Jurong West area.

In an update at 7.17pm, Singtel said the fibre breakage was caused by a third-party contractor carrying out sheet piling works.

Read also: Singtel subscribers hit by phishing e-mail

“Some customers in the vicinity of Jurong West, Boon Lay and Corporation Road may experience difficulties accessing their broadband, fixed voice and Singtel TV services,” said Singtel.

The service outage also affected M1, Starhub and MyRepublic customers.

An update from M1 around 9pm said NetLink Trust expected to restore service availability by approximately 4am.

NetLink Trust posted a media notice on its website, saying it had experienced “a fibre cable cut affecting the areas around Jurong West”.

It added: “This incident was caused by a third party contractor carrying out piling works.

Read also: Singtel handled Internet outage well: GPC chairman

“Our team is working on restoring the connections. If your service is affected by the incident, we apologise for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while we work with your Internet Service Provider to restore your service as soon as possible.”

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said in a Facebook post at 7.04pm that it was monitoring the situation closely.

SIMILAR INCIDENT

“We have asked NetLink Trust and the various service providers to restore services as soon as possible, to minimise the inconvenience to affected customers,” the IMDA post said.

In February last year, a similar incident occurred in the Commonwealth and Ghim Moh area.

A cut cable disrupted Internet connection for households in the vicinity for almost 13 hours.

That incident is believed to have been caused by a contractor doing sewage works.

This article was first published on Apr 12, 2017.
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As part of bank’s innovation drive, DBS tokens to go fully digital by June next year

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, is rolling out “soft” tokens for its 2.6 million online and mobile banking customers to replace hardware tokens.

The soft token, or digital token, is being embedded in DBS’ digibank app and personalised for every user in batches starting from yesterday.

It is used to generate the one-time passwords (OTPs) needed for accessing e-banking accounts.

The bank hopes to let customers ditch their hardware tokens by June next year, when the digital token is upgraded to take over all of the former’s functions.

The roll-out follows a successful trial that started in December last year involving some 200,000 DBS and POSB customers.

“It’s part of our innovation drive so that banking becomes simpler for customers,” Mr Jeremy Soo, head of consumer banking group (Singapore) at DBS Bank, told The Straits Times.

Read also: DBS CEO Piyush Gupta takes 23% pay cut in 2016

The digital token targets mobile banking users, for starters.

Customers will be alerted by the bank via an e-mail to set up their soft token in the digibank app.

Once it is set up, they need not enter the OTP manually as it is automatically accepted by the app.

Over the next few months, the soft token will be upgraded to also generate OTPs for customers to access their e-banking accounts on their computers.

DBS will continue to issue hardware tokens until June next year, when the soft token has all the advanced features of the hardware token.

ADVANCED FEATURES

The advanced features are for authenticating high-risk transactions such as adding a payee or fund transfers.

The Straits Times estimated that the exercise could save the bank more than $12 million in hardware costs, as these tokens – priced at upwards of $10 each – are typically replaced every five years after their batteries run out.

United Overseas Bank was the first bank to issue a soft token, in December last year, with its UOB Mighty Secure app.

Its 7,000 mobile banking customers can use the soft token to authenticate even high-risk transactions such as adding a payee or fund transfers using their phones.

Sales executive Peter Lee, 42, gave digital tokens the thumbs-up.

Read also: Motorists can now pay ERP fees with DBS, POSB credit cards

“Mobile banking is the way to go, and it is troublesome to carry a physical token,” said Mr Lee, who is a DBS digibank user.

But businessman Harry Chew, 47, asked: “What if my phone is stolen or someone has hacked into it?”

DBS’ Mr Soo assured customers that the bank is committed to providing the “highest level of security”, and its digital token is encrypted and protected against phone malware.

This article by The Business Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.