Interestingly, the stocks that performed best this past year were all non-blue chips outside the 30-member index. As drawn from data from Jan 2 to Dec 18, the top 10 gainers on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) saw their share prices increase over 100%, with the top counter recording a share price gain of over 500% in the case of Pharmesis International.
The Singapore market was among the top performers in the region this year. Much of the gain has been ascribed to the three local banks, whose combined weightage of more than half of the Straits Times Index (STI) helped lift the benchmark index to a 17-year high. DBS Group Holdings, in particular, was up by two-fifths.
Besides the three banks, many other key STI component stocks, including Singapore Exchange (SGX:S68
) , Singapore Telecommunications (SGX:Z74) , Sats and Hongkong Land, rose between 20% and 30% year-to-date. The best-performing STI component stock was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings, (SGX:SO7) (SGX:SO7) (SGX:SO7) (SGX:SO7) which gained around 80%.
