(June 1): Four Singaporean blue-chip stocks lost a combined market capitalization of S$863 million on Friday amid record volumes after MSCI Inc. deleted them from its benchmark for the city-state’s largest stocks.
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Two of the four shares excluded from the MSCI Singapore Index -- Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. and Sembcorp Industries Ltd. -- became over-sold on a technical indicator Friday, while ComfortDelGro Corp. and SATS Ltd. traded close to that territory, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Stock price declines in the companies excluded by MSCI were exacerbated as those firms face a “direct hit from the pandemic,” Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners, an investment and advisory group that specializes in special situations.
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MSCI announced the additions and deletions from its global standard indexes under its semi-annual index review on May 12. All changes would take place as of the close of May 29, it said in a statement.
Shares in Singapore Press Holdings slumped to their lowest closing level since 1992 on Friday, while those in Sembcorp Industries fell to their lowest since 2004 and ComfortDelGro ended at a five-week low.
Mapletree Logistics Trust, the sole addition to the MSCI’s benchmark, rose 0.5% on Monday after closing at a record high in the previous trading session.
Singapore Press Holdings rose 1.6% Monday morning, while ComfortDelGro was up by a similar magnitude as it traded without the right to a dividend. SATS shares were little changed, while Sembcorp Industries rose 3.7%. DBS Bank Ltd. upgraded Sembcorp Industries and ComfortDelGro to buy from hold on Monday.
