“The pandemic triggered consensus earnings to be slashed around 27% this year. The worst-hit sectors were the pandemic epicentres of transportation (-30%) and hospitality REITs (-20%). Sectors that managed to clock gains were industrials (+9%), industrial REITs (+10%) and healthcare (+30%),” says Chew.
The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 11.8% in 2020, making it the worst performer in Asia, says PhillipCapital’s head of research Paul Chew in its Singapore strategy report for 2021 dated Jan 5.
The index’s poor performance coincided with Singapore’s worst gross domestic product (GDP) contraction on record of between -6% and -6.5% in the same year.
