The Straits Times Index: Revisited

Tariffs, heightening tensions between the United States and China, and recently the conflict in the Persian Gulf. This string of events happening since the beginning of 2025 had rocked markets worldwide from a geopolitical perspective, sending volatility to major markets. Yet, quietly, for Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI), it rose around 30.18% from 1 Jan 2025 till now (20 Mar 2026), higher than the United States’ S&P500 (9.49%), China’s CSI300 (20.98%) and Europe’s STOXX50 (12.93%), with Japan’s N225 (33.78%) performing slightly better.

(Picture credit: aKasakow from pixabay.com)

There were a few factors, direct and indirect, contributing to STI’s rise, along with some other equity counters; the news of global capital inflows into our tiny little island, the launch of the Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) by the government, and reputation of being a safe and neutral haven, were some of them. A few days ago, the STI went back above the 5,000-point mark since Feb 2026, before settling below it just a couple of days later.

Historically since the last peak experienced prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in Oct 2007 and the subsequent recovery two years later, the STI had been hovering between the ranges of 2,500 and 3,500 points for a period of a decade and a half before the climb happening near the end of 2024. It was during this period that some investors had labelled the STI as going sideways with no direction, with worse descriptions being given to it. The tune now is different, with analysts predicting a 6,500-point level within the next nine months or so¹, a very bull case for our local stock market as a rising tide (of the STI) would be raising all boats (other counters).

Every dog would have its day, as the saying goes. Markets go in cycles, bust and boom, with probably different regions/countries having different peak-trough-peak wavelengths (e.g., Japan’s versus the United States’ markets). Hence, the past couple of years, and possibly at least the next half decade or so, we are seeing some growth in our local equities market, which in the past were regarded only as a “dividend farm”.

However, looking from the flip side of things, Singapore is still a country that relies on trade (imports and exports) and external resources to fully function, traits that are vulnerable and could cause challenges and a reversal of recent fortunes experienced by our locally listed companies. We are still a small market after all, unable to influence much in the whole global equity game: the total market capitalization of all the 30 companies in the STI stood closely to Palantir, just one company, at around SGD 461 billion or so². Bringing up to a larger scale, STI just represented around slightly less than 10% of Alphabet’s³.

The Bedokian’s Take

Going back to the basics of investing as per The Bedokian Portfolio’s methodology, geographical diversification via regions/countries is the next degree lower to that of diversification of asset classes, as explained that different places would have different market and economic conditions at a given time. Granted that most local investors had benefited from the recent STI bull run due to the heavy home bias, it does pay well (pun intended) by having a part of the portfolio in foreign equities, as based on past data, returns did surpass the STI’s depending on the timeframe viewed.

Disclosure

The Bedokian is vested in the STI via the Amova Singapore STI ETF, the S&P 500 via the SPY ETF and Alphabet.

Related post

Is The Straits Times Index That Bad In Performance?

Disclaimer

All data is obtained and calculated from Yahoo Finance unless otherwise stated.

1 – Soh, Terese. STI could hit as high as 6,500 on extended rally, says JPMorgan, giving its top picks. 29 Jan 2026. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capital-markets-currencies/sti-could-hit-high-6500-extended-rally-says-jpmorgan-giving-its-top-picks (accessed 21 Mar 2026)

2 – FTSE Russell Factsheet. Straits Times Index (STI). 27 Feb 2026. https://research.ftserussell.com/Analytics/FactSheets/Home/DownloadSingleIssue?issueName=STI&isManual=False (accessed 21 Mar 2026)

3 – Companiesmarketcap.com (accessed 21 Mar 2026)

 

Black Gold

After the rise of gold and silver, the next commodity that got the world’s attention is crude oil, known as “black gold” colloquially. The recent conflict in the Persian Gulf saw the chokehold of the vital waterway known as the Strait of Hormuz, affecting some 20% of the world’s daily crude oil supply, majority of which were destined for Asia.

The effects were already felt within the last week or so. Most of the crude oil prices had passed the USD 100 per barrel mark, prompting diesel and petrol prices to spike, and the consequential prospect of inflation returning caused by rising costs of transportation of goods.

 

Picture generated by Meta AI

 

Crude Oil in The Bedokian Portfolio

Crude oil is one of the three items to include in the commodities asset class of The Bedokian Portfolio. Unlike gold and silver, both of which can be held physically, for crude oil the simplest way for a layman investor to hold them would be via exchange traded funds (ETFs). The tricky part is that almost all these ETFs use derivatives called futures as their underlying assets, and due to their mechanics (like contango and “rollovers”), they do not really reflect the actual movement of spot oil prices. Hence, I consider crude oil to be optional for inclusion for investors who do not understand how they work.

The recent trade volume of crude oil ETFs had increased not seen since the start of the Russian-Ukraine conflict in 2022, denoting interest in such financial instruments in light of the recent confrontation. Using the United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO) ETF, which I oft utilised for oil plays, the price had shot up almost 41% since 27 Feb 2026¹, the day before the attacks began.

The Bedokian’s Take

If the fighting goes on and the oil blockade enforced, oil prices would likely remain elevated. The duration of wars is unpredictable, and for them to end would require at least one side to capitulate or both sides to agree, something which only the direct participants would know.

On the investment front, if one has the oil ETFs bought before the current crisis, the choice is either to realise some profits or to average up slowly using around 10-20% of the initial capital; the latter method is to provide a price buffer and some gains if oil prices come down suddenly.

Crude oil aside, there are other non-related counters that experienced a drop in prices, too. This is where one could find underpriced but fundamentally stronger companies to invest.

Finally, some analysts and economists were viewing this scenario akin to that of the 1973 Oil Crisis, where it was followed by a period of stagflation, i.e., inflation with slow economic growth. Whether this may happen is uncertain, but it always pays to have a diversified portfolio.

Disclosure

The Bedokian is NOT vested in BNO currently.

Disclaimer

1 – Yahoo Finance.

Lendlease REIT Preferential Offering

Screenshot of PLQ Mall from Lendlease REIT Website

Lendlease Global Commercial REIT (Lendlease REIT) has announced a preferential offering to raise around SGD 196.6 million to acquire the remaining 30% stake of PLQ Mall situated next to Paya Lebar MRT station, as well as to pare down existing debts and to pay off equity raising and debt financing costs. Existing unitholders will get 119 non-renounceable units for every 1,000 units held, priced at SGD 0.558 each.

Accordingly, with the acquisition, the distribution per unit (DPU) is expected to be accretive at +2.1%, with gearing maintaining at around 38%, which is not far off from the 38.4% announced during the REIT’s 1H FY2026 results announced almost a month ago.

Existing Lendlease REIT unitholders can exercise their offer from now till 18 Mar 2026.

The Bedokian’s Take

It was expected that Lendlease REIT would be getting 100% of PLQ Mall as spelt out in their 1H FY2026 financial results presentation on 13 Feb 2026, just that we did not expect them to carry it out so soon since their 70% stake was obtained only a few months ago in Nov 2025.

From a geographical perspective, PLQ Mall, together with its neighbouring Paya Lebar Square and Singpost Centre, is located at the heart of a 2-km radius that contains a diverse mix of residential, commercial, and industrial properties. This creates a central hub for both residents and workers in the area. Further south beyond the 2-km range is another commercial property in which Lendlease REIT has a minority stake: Parkway Parade. Notwithstanding the minor ownership, these two malls could complement each other in the Paya Lebar/Marine Parade region.

As a Lendlease REIT holder, in a longer term sense, and also to prevent dilution (at 11.9% based on 119/1000), it is prudent to lap up the preferential offer. Zooming out, one must not forget that Lendlease REIT still has a couple of prime retail assets in the form of Jem and 313 Somerset.

An issue, though circumstantial, is on the offer price of SGD 0.558; the price as of 11 Mar 2026 stood at SGD 0.555, which means if this price level persist till 18 Mar 2026, it might be worthwhile to obtain the units from the open market, especially if discount brokerages are used to transact.

Disclosure

The Bedokian is vested in Lendlease REIT.

Disclaimer

References

Preferential Offering to Raise Approximately S$196.6 Million –  https://www.lendleaseglobalcommercialreit.com/information/

1H FY2026 Financial Results. 13 February 2026 – https://www.lendleaseglobalcommercialreit.com/siteassets/investor-centre/financial-results/2026/1h-fy2026-results-presentation.pdf

 

UI Boustead REIT IPO

Screenshot from UI Boustead REIT Prospectus cover

It is finally here: the initial public offering (IPO) for UI Boustead REIT (which I had mentioned here before). Below are some of the key highlights from the prospectus:

IPO Application Highlights

• Offer price of SGD 0.88 per unit.

• Total offering size of around 677.2 million units, of which 33.9 million are offered to the public, with the rest in the placement tranche.

• Offer period from 5 Mar 2026 till 10 Mar 2026 at 12 noon.

Asset and Lease Highlights

• 23 properties in the REIT: 21 in Singapore (representing 71.2% of agreed property value) and two in Japan (representing 28.8% of agreed property value), focusing on logistics, industrial and business spaces.

• Portfolio weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 5.8 years.

• Committed occupancy of 89.4%.

Financial Highlights

• Net Asset Value (NAV) of SGD 0.85.

• Forecasted yield is projected for 7.4% for 2026 and 7.8% for 2027.

• Aggregated leverage (gearing) of 37.9%, with interest coverage ratio of 4.7 times.

Selected Analysis

It is noted that most of the figures shown above such as the NAV and occupancy rate were as of 30 Sep 2025, which was almost six months ago. 

The first number that got my attention was the relatively low occupancy rate of 89.4%, likely attributed to the Japanese properties (one in Kansai with a committed occupancy rate of 76.7%, and another near Tokyo with 76.5%). However, the prospectus had mentioned the occupancy would reach 99.4% for the Kansai property by 2027, and the one in Tokyo had reached 100% as of 20 Feb 2026. This information at least gave some assurance on the occupancy issue.

For an overall comparison of their yields, gearing and WALE, I would use two REITs that are similar in terms of property type and with assets in Singapore and overseas (Figure 1):

REIT	Yield (%)	Gearing (%)	WALE (years)
UI Boustead REIT	7.4  (projected 2026)	37.9	5.8
AIMS APAC REIT	6.79	36.6	4.1
Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust	6.13	34.8	4.9

 

Fig.1: Yield, Gearing and WALE figures for UI Boustead REIT, AIMS APAC REIT and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust. Data for AIMS APAC REIT and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust obtained from Yahoo Finance and their respective recent financial presentations. 

UI Boustead’s projected yield, gearing and WALE are on the higher side when compared with its peers.

The tenant mix of UI Boustead REIT’s properties are diversified in terms of lease, tenant profile (single or multi tenanted) and sector/industry, with the highest net property income contributor (a leading aircraft manufacturing company) at 8.6%, thus reducing tenant concentration risk.

The Bedokian’s Take

UI Boustead REIT is another industrial, logistics and business space to consider on top of the two which I had used for the comparison in Figure 1. At SGD 0.88, the IPO price is slightly above the NAV of SGD 0.85 (+3.5%), but I find this premium acceptable. For those who did not have such REITs in their portfolios and wished to venture into these property types, this may be a good start. Personally, however, I may give this a skip as we have AIMS APAC REIT and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust in our portfolio.

Take note that the public tranche is relatively small (only around 5% of the entire offer), and being a REIT there would be many bidders for it, so one may need to go to the open market should one could not get their desired allocation. 

Disclosure

The Bedokian is vested in AIMS APAC REIT and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust.

Disclaimer

References

UI Boustead REIT Prospectus - https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/UI_Boustead_REIT_Prospectus_(5_March_2026).ashx?App=IPO&FileID=6738

 

Hard Carrying

“Hard carry” is a terminology used by gamers that refers to a player or game character dominating an entire game or a game mission, resulting in the player’s/character’s team victory, even though the rest of the teammates are either performing poorly and/or did not do anything much. Putting it in a general context, a person is seen hard carrying a group when he/she was the one pulling everyone through with his/her skills and/or knowledge.

Picture generated by Meta AI.

On the investment front, there could be a few securities or counters doing the hard carrying of gains, such as those that provided the most capital gains, or those that gave the most dividends, or a fair mix of both.

It would be an interesting exercise to see what counters are the “hard carries” in one’s own portfolio, and although it may be comforting to see which were the resulting counters, an analytical and objective view must also be adopted on what to do with them.

Sustainability

Sustainability is often one of the key considerations of investors when conducting a portfolio review. Questions such as whether a counter would continue to give the same growth rate and/or provide the same yield throughout. Even if it cannot sustain the required increment, does it able to maintain within the desired threshold, or perhaps it could still provide some alpha over market returns or inflation rate? These two questions could only be guesstimated by fundamental analysis, i.e., reading up on the company’s forward trajectories and plans, and foreseeing how things unfold in the markets or anything that has a direct or strong indirect effect on the company/sector/industry concerned. 

Sizing

Hard carries in the growth category may run into the risk of being too dominating in terms of sizing in the portfolio. Unless one’s conviction and confidence on a company is strong, it pays to be diversified to avoid a wipeout should anything happen. Different people have different sizing guidelines, which for our Bedokian Portfolio the limit is 12% (for individual company counters).

Selling

On a related note to manage sizing, selling part of the hard carrying holdings is one way, which on a wider scale it is called rebalancing. As part of diversification, rebalancing allows the investor to move the capital from one oversized asset class or counter to an undersized asset class or counter, thus avoiding the potential larger loss should the abovementioned wipeout occurs. A big challenge in carrying out rebalancing is the mental hurdle of not letting a winning position go, thinking that it still has the potential to go higher (and earning more). For this it may be necessary to sacrifice a little bit of the hard carriers for the sake of the portfolio, for I had mentioned before, no security/counter is bigger than the portfolio itself.

CPF’s New Investment Scheme

During Budget 2026, there was an announcement of CPF to introduce a new investment scheme in the first half of 2028, offering simplified, low-cost and diversified commercial investment products.

 

Picture generated by Meta AI

 

According to the CPF website, the key features include:

Automatic age-based rebalancing of investment portfolio mix, with phased liquidation

Investors’ portfolio mix will automatically rebalance along a glidepath from higher-risk assets, such as equities, to lower-risk assets, such as bonds, as they age, before being liquidated in phases by the target date. For example, if the target date is the Payout Eligibility Age (PEA) of 65, the investor's portfolio could be liquidated in phases a few years before PEA.

This calibrates the amount of investment risk to which investors are exposed to at different stages of life and mitigates the risk of a market downturn during exit.

Upon phased liquidation, the investment sale proceeds will be transferred to the investor’s Retirement Account (RA), up to the Full Retirement Sum (FRS). Any remaining proceeds will be transferred to the Ordinary Account (OA). The funds in the RA can then be used to join CPF LIFE when the member decides to start his monthly payouts anytime from age 65, and help boost his monthly payouts.

Simplified choice

 

To simplify decision-making for investors, we are looking to select two to three reputable product providers to offer a small number of options.

Low fees

 

All-in fees will be capped to minimise costs and allow investors to retain and benefit from more of their investment returns.

The Bedokian’s Take

To summarise, this new CPF investment scheme is designed for people who want to take on more risk in beating the prevailing CPF interest rates, yet have a hands-free approach to investing via the automatic rebalancing and liquidation attributes. In other words, I would define it as a “robo-investing plus”, with the plus part being providing the service of divestment.

While I would wait for further details on the new investment scheme, such as the make-up and duration of the portfolios available, at first look it is a pretty good idea for CPF to implement this. However, due to the potential long-term nature of the portfolios, it may be more suitable for individuals who still have a long runway (at least 20 years according to the CPF’s example) than those whose retirement age is coming soon.

References

https://www.cpf.gov.sg/member/infohub/news/news-releases/cpfb-to-introduce-new-investment-scheme-in-2028

 

Disclaimer

“How To Generate $XX Per Month From Your Portfolio”

Occasionally there will be blogposts and social media videos teaching how to generate an amount of income per month (or year) from one’s portfolio, which I find it a good thing as they give expectations on the approximate sizing of portfolio and yield required.

Picture generated by ChatGPT

While it is a relatively simple theoretical exercise involving percentage mathematics, it works when everything else is static, i.e., on a ceteris paribus basis (assume all other things are equal). However, executing it would be slightly difficult as market conditions do not really listen to what the theory was supposed to espouse. For instance, the yield or yields from the various asset classes and securities do not remain at that fixed number throughout, and so does the portfolio size that the yield(s) is based on.

Admittedly we do come out with such calculations for retirement/step-down planning for our portfolios, but we would also take in variables that may boost or hinder this model of determining monthly income. Of course, the first thing to do would be to derive the overall annual yield across the asset classes using the asset class allocations and their average yields, which goes something like this as an example (Figure 1):

 

Asset Class	Allocation (%)	Average Annual Yield (%)	Weighted Yield (Allocation x Average Yield)  (%)
Equities	35	5	1.75
Real Estate Investment Trusts	35	6.5	2.275
Bonds	20	2.5	0.5
Commodities	5	0	0
Cash	5	1	0.05
Overall Annual Yield			4.575

 

Fig.1: Overall annual yield of the balanced Bedokian Portfolio using assumed average yield per asset class.

The average yield could be obtained from a few sources, like from one’s own portfolio numbers, figures from finance sites showing the current yield, etc. Do note that the term "average" is used; yield figures have been sourced from multiple references and consolidated to present a mean value. The advantages of using the average are two-fold: the result gives a benchmark value if the actual portfolio is below it, or a buffer if the actual portfolio is above it.

If one is still not comfortable with the average number, a margin of safety can be introduced, corresponding to an imagined portfolio value drop; if one is prepared for a 30% drop of capital, he/she could adjust the expected yield number by 30% to 3.2%, and then plan the spend on the reduced income amount. This conservative approach would have the psychological effect of viewing amounts above the yield to be “windfall” and thus using them as savings and/or further capital to invest (and grow more yield).