Dairy Farm to replace Starhub in STI

The retail firm is scheduled to join the index by 24 September.

Dairy Farm International will join the Strait Times Index (STI) by 24 September and is set to replace StarHub, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) revealed. Upon inclusion, the pan-Asian retailer will join four other STI constituents that are quoted and traded in US dollars.

“The inclusion of Dairy Farm means the Industrial ICB Classification Benchmark (ICB) consumer goods sector will now have four representative stocks representing between 6% and 7% of the STI weights,” SGX said.

Other consumer goods stocks included are Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, and Golden Agri-Resources.

SGX also noted that Dairy Farm is expected to make up between 1% to 1.5% of the STI weights, based on free-float information and STI weights as of 29 June.

As of the first eight months of 2018, Dairy Farm saw a total return of 24.2%, with institutional net buying totalling $32m. The firm’s earnings for H1 inched up 6% YoY to US$225m ($309.44m).