Introduction
Major benchmarks in the United States continue to break new highs with the Dow Jones Industrial Average marking a historic high of 21,115.55 on 1 March 2017, lifted by the Trump Administration’s policies of infrastructure plans and tax cuts. Asian markets, on the other hand, lagged far behind in comparison to the performances of their western counterparts. Despite already achieving a year-to-date return of eight percent by closing at 3,118.84 on 09 March 2017, Singapore’s Straits Times Index still has a lot more room for advancement before it can reach its previous high of 3,525.19 in April 2015. In terms of price-to-earnings (P/E) valuation, current P/E ratio of SPDR Straits Times Index (STI) ETF, an exchange-traded fund which tracks the performance of Straits Times Index, stood at 12.8 times as of 10 March 2017. This does not seem expensive at all given that the historic P/E ratio of SPDR STI ETF has a long term average of around 16.9 times from 1973 to 2010. Market sentiments are generally beaten down due to a lack of confidence attributable to the impending US rate hike, low oil price, and political uncertainties in the Europe zones. To help investors make better-informed decisions, we seek to discover value amidst uncertainties in the market by compiling this report, sifting out 20 companies (18 listed on the Singapore Exchange and two on Bursa Malaysia) with strong fundamentals. We highlight their respective strengths so as to help investors gain a quick understanding of these companies through our introduction and insights. Among these featured companies, we hope that you may find some hidden gems which could be suitable candidates to be added into your portfolio. Enjoy the read.
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