After the tariffs were announced on Liberation Day on 2 April, the Straits Times Index (STI) fell sharply from 3,942 points to 3,394 points – a 16% drop in less than a week. However, it subsequently recovered 3,832 points at the end of the month, just 3% off from before Liberation Day. The STI has gained another 1% in the month of May, as markets await further updates to the tariff saga.
| Stock | Ticker (SGX) | Current price | % increase vs low | 1-Year low | % decrease vs high | 1-Year high |
| CapitaLand Investment | 9CI | $2.57 | 8.4% | $2.37 | -19.7% | $3.20 |
| City Development | C09 | $4.89 | 13.2% | $4.32 | -18.9% | $6.03 |
| Genting Singapore | G13 | $0.72 | 9.1% | $0.66 | -23.4% | $0.94 |
| Jardine C&C | C07 | $25.60 | 10.8% | $23.10 | -13.2% | $29.50 |
| Venture Corporation | V03 | $11.00 | 8.2% | $10.17 | -29.7% | $15.64 |
Here are 5 STI stocks that fell after Liberation Day but have since bounced off the lows. We will assess each company to identify whether it is a good opportunity to buy or not.
1) CapitaLand Investment
CLI has fallen more than 20% since the restructuring in Sept 2021 which involved a demerger and delisting of the property development segment, leaving behind the investment and asset management arm.
CDL has been in the headlines for its internal conflict between its CEO and Executive Chairman. The power struggle between CDL’s executive chairman and his son, the CEO, turned into an all-out boardroom war, raising concerns about the company’s stability and strategic direction
A truce, or resolution, was reportedly reached in the boardroom dispute, with the two key stakeholders mediated by trusted family friends and senior establishment figures. This followed a period of acrimonious public statements and a drop in CDL’s share price.
CLI fell significantly in April but recovered all its intra-month losses. With the recent ex dividend of 18 cents which is worth nearly 7%, it means that the increase vs low was closer to 15%, instead of 8%.
The opportunity at hand for CLI lies in its strategy, which is based on generating sustainable double-digit percentages ROE above cost of equity and is supported by three synergistic growth drivers of fund management, lodging management, and active capital management.
CLI performs best in a low interest and high performing economy where it is able to invest, carry out fund raising and recycle capital, all at low costs.
The risk for CLI, which was also the risk present in the last month, was a slowing economy with a high interest rate as it would cause CLI’s cost to increase and would also slow down the execution of its strategy.
2) City Development
CDL has been in the headlines for its internal conflict between its CEO and Executive Chairman. The power struggle between CDL’s Executive Chairman and his son, the CEO, turned into an all-out boardroom war, raising concerns about the company’s stability and strategic direction
A truce, or resolution, was reportedly reached in the boardroom dispute, with the two key stakeholders mediated by trusted family friends and senior establishment figures. This followed a period of acrimonious public statements and a drop in CDL’s share price.
The opportunity for CDL is for it to provide a clear path to improvement on the concerns of corporate governance within CDL, a family-controlled company. Skepticism remains regarding the unity within the company and its ability to make the right moves to unlock and generate shareholder value in the current environment.
The risk for CDL is similar to CLI in which a slowing economy combined with a high interest rate would cause interest cost to increase and would also slow down the execution of its strategy. In addition, with CDL having a large property development order book, any downside risk would be exponentially higher.
3) Genting Singapore
Genting Singapore continues its poor performance, after falling more than 20% last year as its results underperformed due to lower VIP volume and the house’s win rate. Non-gaming revenue also weakened due to the impact of the strong SGD leading to higher travel costs.
As Singapore’s tourism recovered strongly in 2024, Genting’s revenue surpassed pre-Covid levels. However, rising costs and inflationary pressure remain significant challenges, contributing to decline in profits.
Therefore current levels of earnings might persist until RWS 2.0 attractions (Minion Land, the Singapore Oceanarium, the Central Lifestyle Connector and an all-suite hotel in place of Hard Rock Hotel) start to open progressively from 1H25 and meaningfully contribute to earnings growth in 2H25/2026.
There is also a waterfront development project that is slated to include two new luxury hotels featuring 700 keys, a four-storey podium housing entertainment offerings, plus various retail and dining outlets. This part of the expansion will commence construction in November 2024.
Genting has a net asset value of 68.7 cents per share as at December 2024. Genting carries no debt and has 43% or 29.8 cents of its net asset value is cash.
With Genting trading at $0.74, this means that excluding cash, the rest of the business is valued at about $0.44.
The tricky part is valuing the business based on its earnings. It earned 2.95 cents per share in 1H24 but only recorded 0.66 cents per share in 3Q24 and 1.2 cents in 4Q24. It is also unknown what the post RWS 2.0 earnings would look like as a progressive opening tends to weigh on profitability.
If Genting can return to 1H24 level of earnings, i.e., 2.95 cents per share per half year or nearly 6 cents a year, that would mean the business is valued at a P/E ratio of only 7 times.
The opportunity lies in Genting having all its revenue generated domestically which is a structural advantage when comparing to other companies who would face slowdown in other regions as well as a stronger SGD. Genting notes that the Thai government has given approval-in-principle to a draft Entertainment Complex Business Act in January 2025, which could pave the way for the legalisation of casinos in Thailand.
Genting said they are closely monitoring the development and will continue to evaluate and explore geographical diversification opportunity. We note that Genting did explore an opportunity in Japan previously but did not end up building a casino there due to various reasons.
4) Jardine C&C
In the first three months of 2025, Jardine C&C recorded lower contributions from most of its businesses. Indonesia Astra reported a 9% decrease in underlying profit which reflected subdued economic conditions and an impact by the weaker Indonesian Rupiah. Astra’s financial services, agribusiness and infrastructure units saw improved performance, while its automotive & mobility, and heavy equipment and mining businesses reported lower earnings.
The opportunity for Jardine C&C would be to recycle its capital well. In FY24, it unlocked US$387 million mainly from the sale of Siam Cement in Thailand and invested another US$99 million in REE, an energy and infrastructure group in Vietnam.
Jardine C&C sees opportunities in the following countries and sectors. In Indonesia, opportunities lies in infrastructure, non coal energy, automotive ecosystem and healthcare. In Vietnam, opportunities lies in agriculture, property and renewable energy.
The risk for Jardine C&C is in ASEAN economies slowing down from reduced trade as a result of tariffs. Jardine C&C said that while the direct impact on the businesses is unlikely to be significant, they are cautious over the knock-on effects on the markets, particularly on currency rates and consumer sentiment.
5) Venture Corporation
Venture registered revenue of S$2.7 billion in FY24, lower by 9.6% YoY due to softer customer demand. Net profit fell 9.3% to S$245.0 million, however net profit margin improved by 0.1% YoY to 9.0%, reflecting the resilience of its business model as well as a tight focus on operational efficiency.
Venture saw revenue growth across the majority of its technology domains moving from 1H 2024 to 2H 2024. In particular, Venture delivered improved performance in the Networking & Communications and Advanced Industrial technology domains. This was offset by the Lifestyle Consumer technology domain, which was impacted by unexpected lower demand. Comparing 2H 2024 to 1H 2024, revenue declined 2.3%.
Venture continues to see good opportunities on the horizon with new design wins and new product introductions for secular growth segments like Life Science and AI data centre related businesses.
Venture will benefit from technology supply chain diversification to ASEAN countries as many large companies seek to develop flexibility and reduce risk. Before tariffs were announced, Venture saw additional business from several customers seeking to mitigate geopolitical risk and have been in different stages of implementation with the various customers.
Venture currently trades at very favourable valuations when compared to the last decade. Venture currently has about $1.1 billion in cash (Ex-dividend), which is approximately one-third of its market capitalisation or $3.7 per share in cash which means the business is valued at about $2.2 billion.
With FY24 revenues of about $2.7 billion and earnings of $0.844 per share, this means that after excluding cash, P/S of the business is about 0.8 times while the P/E of the business is about 11.5 times.
With its strong cash position, Venture have purchased 1.7 million shares under the Share Buyback Plan which authorised the purchase of up to 10 million shares. For the remaining 8.3 million shares, Venture has approved the acceleration of the Share Buyback Plan going forward.
With a net asset value per share of $10, share buybacks at current price levels would be extremely good value. The accelerated Share Buyback Plan, together with its dividend yield would deliver good shareholder returns.
Like most manufacturing companies, Venture has some tariff exposure to the US/China tariff arising from manufacturing in China. While Venture’s revenue from customers within Asia account for 95%, the risk arises where parts of the product may be made in China for end customers based in the US
However, Venture’s manufacturing plants are in mainly in Malaysia with R&D and product support from Singapore. There is however a small portion of manufacturing coming from China. This means that Venture’s tariff exposure is minimal.
Closing statements
All of these 5 companies have rebounded from recent lows along with the broader market, but are still trading substantially below the year highs. As large companies, all of these 5 companies face macroeconomic risks. However, 3 of the companies, Genting, Jardine C&C and Venture Corp have either taken mitigating actions or have put in place plans with a focus on recovery and these would be the companies worth looking at for a potential turnaround.
If you’re looking for more stock ideas, Alvin shares how he finds the best stocks to invest in to grow our Dr Wealth portfolio. Learn more here.
