OREANDA-NEWS. The Consumer Sectors are made up of companies that supply goods and services to Consumers. These goods and services include necessities & luxuries. Just because one company provides a necessity does not infer there is no competition for its products or services. This means most companies in the Consumer Sector aim to understand their customer behaviours while building their brand and customer reach.

The Consumer Sectors are made up of stocks categorised as Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary by the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®). GICS® is also used to categorise stocks on SGX StockFacts. In Singapore there are 160 such Consumer stocks, whilst across the Asia Pacific region there are more than 6000 companies categorised to the Consumer Sector.

Approximately one-half of the 6000 companies are listed across Asia Pacific’s emerging markets, with the other half listed across Asia Pacific’s developed markets. The median year to date total returns of the consumer stocks listed on Asia Pacific’s emerging markets was -9.3%. For Asia Pacific’s consumer stocks listed across the developed markets the median year to date total return was -4.8%. As noted in the SGX My Gateway Report yesterday median performance and valuation measures are often used in place of the average when one or two stocks with outlier performances or valuations significantly impact the average.

The 20 largest capitalised consumer stocks listed on SGX have a combined market capitalisation of S$122.5 billion and have generated an average 2016 year-to-date total return of 3.6% taking the average five year total return to 24.5%. 

The chart below illustrates the average year to date total return of the largest 20 capitalised consumer stocks relative to the largest 20 consumer stocks in the Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.

Average YTD Total Return (%) of 20 Largest Consumer Stocks

Source: Bloomberg (data as of 16 May 2016), Note Averages in SGD

The 20 largest capitalised consumer stocks listed on SGX have generated diversified returns in the year thus far with total returns ranging from -20.8% for Alibaba Pictures Group to 47.9% for Japfa. The median price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio  for the 20 stocks is 20.2, which is above the median five year P/E ratio for the 20 stocks at 18.9. The average dividend yield for the 20 stocks is 2.3% with 17 of the 20 stocks maintaining a dividend yield. The three highest dividend yields of the 20 stocks are maintained by Olam International, Sheng Siong Group and Singapore Press Holdings.

Within the group of 20 consumer stocks, the five best performing stocks in the year to date have been Japfa,

Thai Beverage PCL, Shangri-La Asia, Delfi and Wilmar International. Please note that Delfi was formerly named Petra Food. Delfi is a recognisable brand name in Singapore through its manufacturing, marketing and distribution of chocolate, chocolate confectionery and consumer products.

The table below details the 20 largest capitalised consumer stocks listed on SGX, and is sort according to market capitalisation. Click on each stock to visit its profile page on SGX StockFacts. Note that secondary listings below include Dairy Farm Intl Hldgs, Alibaba Pictures Group, Shangri-La Asia, Genting Hong Kong and Mandarin Oriental Intl.