• Just over 40 Singapore-listed stocks that posted price gains over the past year, maintain single-digit P/E ratios and double-digit ROEs. This includes 27 Mainboard-listed stocks and 14 Catalist-listed stocks. According to the SGX Stock Screener, STI constituent Singapore Airlines is also among these stocks.
   
• Aside from Singapore Airlines, the most traded stocks of the cohort over the past 5 weeks were Geo Energy Res, Golden Agri, Food Empire, TJ DaRenTang, Valuetronics, Marco Polo Marine, Ley Choon, Bumitama Agri and Stamford Land. Among these stocks, Golden Agri, Food Empire, TJ DaRenTang, Bumitama Agri are currently trading below their Consensus Estimate Target Prices.
   
• ​​​​​​​Two in three of the screened stocks also represent either the Industrials Sector or Consumer Sectors. Just over half of  the stocks are also trading below their book value, and from a dividend perspective, three in four of the stocks maintain indicative dividend yields averaging 5.0%.
   

Investors of the Singapore stock market are able to compare and contrast stock financials, valuations, price performances, volumes and corporate announcements in the SGX Stock Screener.

As an educative example, this Market Update employed a basic screen, soon after the 6 Feb open. The screen is based on three key criteria, firstly double-digit Return-on-Equity (ROE), secondly a single digit Price-to Earnings (P/E) ratio and thirdly stocks that generated price gains over the past year. Note the screening took place during the 6 February morning session, and thus last prices did not necessarily represent the previous session’s settlement prices. The screening is also not a trading strategy or specific endorsement of any trading methods, rather an example of how investors can utilise the Stock Screener.

The 10 most traded stocks that fulfilled the above criteria are tabled below.  

Note: ADT refers to average daily turnover, and sourced by SGX, as are the Sectors. All remaining fields sourced by SGX Stock Screener with Data taken during the Morning Session 6 Feb 2024. Note the data in the Stock Screener is based on specific analytical conventions, and may contradict metrics provided by other data and information providers.

The table above provides the ROE, P/E, and 52-week price change of the stocks:

• ROE measures of how efficiently a company has used its shareholder equity to generate profits. A higher ROE indicates the company has been more efficient in converting equity into profit. The Stock Screener calculates ROE by taking the Income available to common stockholders for the trailing twelve months divided by the average common equity and expresses the ratio as a percentage. In addition the average common equity is calculated by adding the common equity for the five most recent quarters and dividing by five. According the Stock Screener, which is powered by Refinitiv, as of 5 February, SGX listed close to 150 stocks with an ROE above 10.0%.
• For valuation, a common metric is the Price-to Earnings (P/E) ratio which simply expresses the price of the stock relative to its annual earnings. The Stock Screener calculates P/E by dividing the stock price by the sum of the diluted earnings per share from continuing operations before extraordinary items and accounting changes over the last four quarters. Applying a value lens, a single-digit P/E ratio is seen to be ‘less expensive’ than a double-digit P/E ratio. However, P/E ratios can also vary across Sectors and within Sectors. For instance, Developed APAC stocks that represent the Industrials Sector maintain a median P/E ratio of 13x, while the stocks of the Technology Sector maintains a median P/E ratio of 19x. Within the Technology Sector, the top quintile by market capitalisation maintain a 21x median P/E while the lowest quintile maintains a median P/E of 16x. According the Stock Screener there are around 150 stocks listed on SGX that currently maintain single digit P/E ratios.
• Almost 100 stocks overlap in the screens for both double-digit ROE and single-digit P/E. Excluding stocks of the Bank and S-REIT Sector (as P/E is not a common metric for either Sector), in addition to excluding stocks that have generated declines in price over the past 52 weeks, left just over 40 stocks in the Stock Screener during the 6 February morning session. These stocks mostly represented the Industrials Sector or Consumer Sectors, thus some Sectors like Technology that may have a higher industry bar  for P/E ratios may have been underrepresented in the screen for generally lower P/E ratios.

The full lists of stocks that met the screening criteria are tabled below. Just over half of the stocks are also trading at discounts to the book value, with the majority of price-to-book (P/B) ratios below 1.0x, while from a dividend perspective, the majority also maintain indicative yields that average 5.0%.

Note *Listed on Catalist; ^on SGX Watch List. Note: ADT refers to average daily turnover, and sourced by SGX, as are the Sectors. All remaining fields sourced by SGX Stock Screener with Data taken during the Morning Session 6 Feb 2024. Note the data in the Stock Screener is based on specific analytical conventions, and may contradict metrics provided by other data and information providers.

Did you know Stock Screener also includes Refinitiv Consensus Estimate Target Prices?

Multiple stocks tabled above also maintain Refinitiv consensus estimates on the Stock Screener. These estimates represent the average of individual estimates provided by analysts covering the stock and the estimates typically represent an analyst's opinion of the stock performance over the next 18 months. Singapore Airlines is currently trading above is Refinitiv consensus estimates, while the majority of stocks that have these consensus estimates published on the stock screener are trading below the consensus estimates. Note that estimates for stocks with less than three analysts in the consensus will not be displayed. For instance Geo Energy Resources does not have a consensus estimates on the Stock Screener as it is currently covered by two analysts, with one analyst also recently sharing the research (click here for report) on the SGX Analyst Research portal. Other stocks tabled above that have had relevant analyst research shared in the portal in the past few months include Centurion Corp, BRC Asia, Bumitama Agri, and Boustead Singapore.

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