Global markets experienced a sell-off after United States President Donald Trump imposed a 10% baseline tariff on imported goods from all countries starting April 5. US markets reacted sharply, with $S&P 500(.SPX)$ $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ dropping 4.8%, 4% and 6% respectively on the April 3 session.
Following that and on April 4, $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ dipped close to 2% in the morning session and saw approximately S$1.6 billion worth of shares change hands. STI closed the week with a 3.7% decline, after 5 consecutive sessions of losses.
In contrast, Singapore real estate investment trusts (S-REITs), as tracked by the iEdge S-REIT Index, rose 1.4% on April 3 following Trump’s tariff announcement and ended the week in positive territory, up 0.2%. S-REITs outperformed the global REITs market with the FTSE EPRA Nareit Global REITs Index declining over 3% in the April 3 session. The FTSE EPRA Nareit Asia Pacific Index and FTSE EPRA Nareit Asia ex Japan Index also underperformed S-REITs at 0.2% and 0.9% respectively.
Institutional investors were seen to have rotated into S-REITs, with about S$26 million of net inflows during the April 3 session, possible indicating a preference for relative stability and income potential amid a volatile market.
S-REITs ended the first quarter of this year with total returns of 2.8%, driven by a 5.0% price gain in March, marking its best monthly return in eight months.
Within the iEdge S-REIT Index, 23 trusts were gainers, two remained unchanged, and 5 were decliners during March. Top S-REIT performers for the month were $Frasers HTrust(ACV.SI)$ $Frasers L&C Tr(BUOU.SI)$ $ParkwayLife Reit(C2PU.SI)$ $KEPPEL REIT(K71U.SI)$ $CapLand IntCom T(C38U.SI)$. ParkwayLife REIT and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust were also among top 5 gainers on April 3, with gains of 5.2% and 3.3% respectively.
Conversely, underperformers in March were $DigiCore Reit USD(DCRU.SI)$ $KepPacOakReitUSD(CMOU.SI)$ $Sasseur Reit(CRPU.SI)$ $ManulifeReit USD(BTOU.SI)$ $Daiwa Hse Log Tr(DHLU.SI)$.
In March, Digital Core REIT saw $Franklin Resources(BEN)$ , one of the world’s largest investment managers, also known as Franklin Templeton, emerge as a substantial shareholder of the REIT with a 5.06% interest. The 969,800 units were acquired at an average price of US$0.577 apiece.
In terms of fund flows, institutional investors net bought over S$71 million into the sector during March, after five consecutive months of net institutional outflows since last September.
The five S-REITs which saw the largest net institutional inflows in March were $CapLand IntCom T(C38U.SI)$ $Mapletree Log Tr(M44U.SI)$ $PARAGON REIT(SK6U.SI)$ $KEPPEL REIT(K71U.SI)$ $ParkwayLife Reit(C2PU.SI)$.
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