February Portfolio Review
The Singapore stock market ended February on a weak performance with the Straits Times Index (STI) dropping 5%. Year-till-date, the STI incurred a total loss of 7%. Most of the index component stocks took a hard hit in the first two months of 2020.
In the past month, while the coronavirus situation in Singapore was generally stable, however, multiple countries around the world have seen the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. The headlines were in general negative, thousands of flight cancellation by airlines, pay cut, layoff …
US stocks encountered a sharp correction last week as the worldwide spread of the coronavirus impacted the global economic growth.
Not surprisingly, our REIT portfolio was down by 6.1% year-till-date. The good news is we still managed to outperform the STI by more than 1%.
Dividend wise, we received a total dividend of $1,736. The annualised dividend yield of the portfolio was about 14%!
With all the received dividends and recent correction, we have made more purchase this month, for premium subscribers, please refer to the monthly newsletter. The gearing of the portfolio remained at 1.5 times.
While the sentiment is in general negative, in the recent announcement of Budget 2020, the Singapore government has prepared to spend billions of dollars to help the hospitality and retail sectors to stabilise and support the business during this period of time.
The short-term volatility caused by Covid-19 would potentially provide a good buying opportunity for long-term dividend investor.
Premium subscribers can login to access the January newsletter and the REITs portfolio.