The S$95.4 million inflow into S-REITs, alongside S$88.2 million in outflows from Financial Services and S$71 million from Technology, highlights this changing preference. However, one week's flows do not confirm a lasting rotation.
REITs' resilience is encouraging, but 34 trusts gaining last week does not erase their year-to-date losses. Singapore banks also remain fundamentally different from technology stocks.
My focus is on sustainable REIT distributions, banks' earnings resilience, and whether technology companies can justify their AI capital expenditure.
Ultimately, volatility creates opportunities, but institutional buying alone is no reason to chase prices. Capital should follow improving fundamentals, not last week's strongest performers.
@SGX_Stars [微笑]
Singapore Tech Stocks Slide 10% as Institutions Pull S$71 Million
@SGX_Stars：
Last week, global equity volatility was led by weakness across semiconductors, technology hardware, software and telecommunications stocks, amid concerns over AI spending, regulation and returns following the US midterm elections. Bloomberg reported that the technology sell-off was accompanied by a Treasury rally as investors reassessed the outlook for AI investment, regulation and interest rates. Within the US large- and mid-cap universe, REITs, real estate, consumer staples, healthcare and insurance were among the more resilient sectors. The $S&P 500(.SPX)$ and $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ declined 2.7% and 4.9% respectively over the first four sessions of last week, before recovering 3.4% and 2.4% across Friday and Monday. In Singapore, the clearest impact was in technology stocks and the $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ ’s three banks, while REITs recorded the strongest alignment between institutional flows and share-price performance. The three banks also provided 3QFY26 updates last week, with consensus target prices for all three lower than at end-3Q26, albeit to varying degrees. Despite the volatility, the five-session institutional net outflow of S$57 million remained below the market's average weekly year-to-date net institutional selling pace of approximately S$100 million (based on the total net institutional outflow of S$4.5 billion over the preceding 45 weeks). Last week, institutional positioning shifted materially as Technology, Financial Services and selected consumer stocks recorded net outflow while REITs and selected Industrials attracted net inflow. Sector Week ending 6 Nov Institutional Net Flow S$M Sector Week ending 6 Nov Institutional Net Flow S$M REITs 95.4 Healthcare -2.2 Industrials 73.6 Energy/Oil & Gas -2.9 Consumer Cyclicals 13.1 Telecommunications -12.6 Utilities 2.4 Consumer Non-Cyclicals -65.4 Real Estate (ex-REITs) 1.0 Technology -71.0 Materials & Resources -0.1 Financial Services -88.2 Source: SGX (Data as of 6 November 2026) S-REITs Held Ground During Global Volatility S-REITs featured prominently among the stocks that held up during the week, with 34 of the 39 trusts recording positive total returns. $ESR REIT(9A4U.SI)$ gained 5.6%, $CapLand China T(AU8U.SI)$ rose 5.0%, $CapLand India T(CY6U.SI)$ advanced 4.8% and $Mapletree PanAsia Com Tr(N2IU.SI)$ added 4.3%, although their year-to-date total returns remained negative at between -13.6% and -22.8%. $CapLand Ascendas REIT(A17U.SI)$ gained 2.3%, narrowing its year-to-date loss to 15.3%. $Keppel DC Reit(AJBU.SI)$ and $CapLand IntCom T(C38U.SI)$ rose 2.8% and 2.6%, respectively, taking both to positive year-to-date total returns of approximately 2.3%. Outside the sector, $DFIRG USD(D01.SI)$ gained 7.0%, while $JMH USD(J36.SI)$ and Jardine Matheson Southeast Asia advanced 5.6% and 3.7%, respectively, despite year-to-date total returns of -2.2%, -8.5% and -24.0%. Net institutional buying paralleled several of these gains. CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Keppel DC REIT attracted five-session net institutional inflow of S$46.4 million, S$13.1 million and S$9.9 million, respectively. Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust drew S$7.7 million, while ESR-REIT attracted S$1.9 million. Jardine Matheson recorded S$51.0 million of net inflow and DFI Retail Group S$8.1 million. There were also exceptions, for instance CapitaLand India Trust advanced despite S$0.7 million of net institutional outflow. Overall, the week’s gains represented a recovery for many trusts still showing negative year-to-date total returns, rather than a complete reversal of earlier weakness. Technology and Banks Reflected the Global Weakness Technology stocks were broadly weaker during the week, accompanied by S$71.0 million of net institutional outflow. $AEM SGD(AWX.SI)$ declined 16.8% and recorded S$27.1 million of net institutional outflow. $UMS(558.SI)$ declined 15.9%, with S$10.1 million of outflow. $Venture(V03.SI)$ declined 5.2% and recorded S$13.0 million of outflow, while $CSE Global(544.SI)$ declined 6.3% with S$10.9 million of outflow. Financial Services recorded the largest sector net institutional outflow at S$88.2 million. $DBS(D05.SI)$ declined 4.7% and recorded S$63.4 million of net institutional outflow. $OCBC Bank(O39.SI)$ declined 5.3%, with S$24.7 million of outflow, while $UOB(U11.SI)$ declined 10.9% and recorded S$10.2 million of outflow. Combined institutional selling across the three banks reached S$98.4 million, partly offset by net buying elsewhere in Financial Services. The completed five-session window therefore showed an institutional selling across all three banks rather than a rotation between them. Stocks with Most Net Institutional Outflow Last Week Code Mkt Cap S$M YTD ADT S$M YTD NIF S$M YTD Total Return % Last Week Total Return % Last Week NIF S$M Last Week Avg Bid Ask Spread (bps) Sector DBS D05 198,284 325.9 -2,504.1 29 -5 -63.42 2.08 Financial Services Wilmar Intl F34 18,545 27.6 232.1 0 -1 -34.04 33.96 Consumer Non-Cyclicals Keppel BN4 16,895 49.5 -13.4 -5 -6 -28.85 11.79 Industrials AEM SGD AWX 1,978 41.6 297.5 262 -17 -27.06 18.54 Technology OCBC Bank O39 124,664 167.7 -315.8 46 -5 -24.74 4.52 Financial Services First Resources EB5 4,134 9.7 3.5 34 -19 -22.32 42.41 Consumer Non-Cyclicals ST Engineering S63 28,857 55.7 79.1 12 -9 -21.78 11.50 Industrials Sheng Siong OV8 3,533 10.4 -54.5 -8 -12 -17.42 41.74 Consumer Non-Cyclicals Venture V03 4,104 14.4 -70.1 -1 -5 -13.05 8.51 Technology CSE Global 544 599 13.0 -93.8 -15 -6 -10.86 58.73 Technology UOB U11 60,736 136.0 167.1 10 -11 -10.23 3.65 Financial Services UMS 558 1,590 25.2 22.0 51 -16 -10.05 55.46 Technology NetLink NBN Tr CJLU 3,663 5.9 -31.6 0 1 -6.83 53.54 Telecommunications Singtel Z74 66,583 129.2 -589.4 -8 -1 -6.09 24.42 Telecommunications Hong Leong Asia H22 1,612 5.6 -17.0 -14 -12 -5.30 48.12 Industrials Mapletree Ind Tr ME8U 4,971 14.1 -153.4 -11 2 -5.22 57.49 REITs Frencken E28 819 15.6 85.0 27 -14 -4.99 55.65 Technology Bumitama Agri P8Z 2,393 4.1 14.3 8 -9 -4.03 74.75 Consumer Non-Cyclicals CapitaLandInvest 9CI 11,785 30.6 -31.6 -9 -2 -3.94 42.50 Financial Services Nanofilm MZH 487 8.0 12.3 30 -7 -3.73 66.87 Technology Source: SGX, LSEG Workspace, Bloomberg (Data as of 6 November 2026) Stocks with Most Net Institutional Inflow Last Week Code Mkt Cap S$M YTD ADT S$M YTD NIF S$M YTD Total Return % Last Week Total Return % Last Week NIF S$M Last Week Avg Bid Ask Spread (bps) Sector JMH USD J36 22,771 34.3 -186.5 -8 6 50.98 11.18 Industrials CapLand Ascendas REIT A17U 11,289 55.7 -428.1 -15 2 46.44 44.43 REITs SIA C6L 21,915 49.2 812.8 13 4 36.83 15.62 Industrials Genting Sing G13 7,359 22.3 -120.7 -11 2 14.45 82.46 Consumer Cyclicals YZJ Shipbldg SGD BS6 17,120 75.1 68.6 31 -4 14.01 23.39 Industrials CapLand IntCom T C38U 18,659 70.8 46.3 2 3 13.08 43.05 REITs SATS S58 5,535 23.2 150.7 -1 2 12.53 29.05 Industrials SGX S68 21,925 61.4 -73.0 24 1 10.14 6.15 Financial Services Keppel DC Reit AJBU 5,972 27.4 -41.9 2 3 9.89 46.42 REITs UIBREIT UIBU 1,061 6.7 -73.0 N/A 2 9.81 68.60 REITs DFIRG USD D01 6,462 7.2 18.1 -2.2 7.0 8.15 32.74 Consumer Non-Cyclicals Mapletree PanAsia Com Tr N2IU 6,240 16.7 -88.6 -15 4 7.72 85.27 REITs Seatrium Ltd 5E2 6,070 33.8 -72.5 -16 -2 7.64 53.92 Industrials ComfortDelGro C52 2,794 13.3 -82.7 -7 2 5.77 77.36 Industrials Keppel Reit K71U 4,169 15.0 -154.2 -11 2 5.06 60.26 REITs IFAST AIY 2,413 12.4 -146.9 -16 2 4.26 15.16 Technology Mapletree Log Tr M44U 5,704 18.4 -105.0 -11 3 4.15 90.88 REITs ThaiBev Y92 10,932 8.0 -4.5 0 2 3.55 116.92 Consumer Non-Cyclicals StarhillGbl Reit P40U 1,129 1.0 -5.0 -13 -3 2.86 100.03 REITs CapLand Ascott T HMN 3,259 6.0 -93.6 -6 2 2.85 62.43 REITs Source: SGX, LSEG Workspace, Bloomberg (Data as of 6 November 2026) Global Defensive Themes Were Only Partially Reflected in Singapore Singapore’s defensive sectors showed uneven support during the week. S-REITs gained 2.5% on a market-cap-weighted total-return basis and attracted S$95.4 million of net institutional inflows. The recovery extended across much of the sector, with 34 of the 39 trusts recording positive weekly total returns, four declining and one unchanged. Support was less evident in consumer defensives and telecommunications. $Sheng Siong(OV8.SI)$ declined 12.0% and recorded S$17.4 million of net institutional outflows. $Wilmar Intl(F34.SI)$ declined 1.3% with S$34.0 million of outflows, while F $First Resources(EB5.SI)$ declined 18.8% with S$22.3 million of outflows. $Singtel(Z74.SI)$ and $NetLink NBN Tr(CJLU.SI)$ also recorded net institutional outflows of S$6.1 million and S$6.8 million, respectively, although their returns diverged: Singtel declined 1.0%, while NetLink gained 0.5%. Institutional buying within Industrials was concentrated in selected stocks. $JMH USD(J36.SI)$ , $SIA(C6L.SI)$ , $YZJ Shipbldg SGD(BS6.SI)$ and $SATS(S58.SI)$ attracted five-session net institutional inflow of S$51.0 million, S$36.8 million, S$14.0 million and S$12.5 million, respectively. The sector recorded S$73.6 million of net institutional inflows overall, despite declining 1.7% on a market-cap-weighted total-return basis. $Keppel(BN4.SI)$ and $ST Engineering(S63.SI)$ recorded outflows of S$28.8 million and S$21.8 million, respectively, relaying the industry-specific nature of institutional flow within the broad sector. Consumer positioning was similarly stock-specific. $DFIRG USD(D01.SI)$ , $ThaiBev(Y92.SI)$ and $Golden Agri-Res(E5H.SI)$ attracted net institutional inflow of S$8.1 million, S$3.6 million and S$1.7 million, respectively, while Wilmar International, First Resources, Sheng Siong and Bumitama Agri recorded net outflow. The clearest local defensive support was therefore in REITs, rather than a broad-based shift into defensive stocks. Week Ahead: Focus on US Inflation and China Data Market attention this week will centre on 3Q26 earnings, US inflation data and economic releases from China. US CPI, PPI and inflation-expectation data will be assessed following the technology-led sell-off and Treasury rally, while scheduled comments from Federal Reserve officials may provide further indications on the interest-rate outlook. Developments affecting AI investment, regulation and expected returns will also remain relevant for technology valuations. China’s October trade and credit data, together with activity around Singles’ Day on 11 Nov, will also be closely monitored. Other scheduled releases include India’s October CPI, the UK’s preliminary 3Q26 GDP estimate and Hong Kong’s final 3Q26 GDP data. COP31, which runs from 9 to 20 November, will remain relevant for energy, climate and infrastructure-related companies.
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