Institutional outflows from small-cap stocks hit $119m in 2019

They generated a median 7% total return.

Singapore’s small-cap stocks saw a net institutional outflow of $119m, according to an SGX report.

The top 10 small-cap stocks with the highest inflow proportionate to their market cap posted an average total return of 75%, with eight far outpacing the Straits Times Index’s (STI) 9.4% in 2019. They also accounted for almost a third of the combined turnover of Singapore’s small-cap stocks in 2019.

The five most actively traded stocks of the 10 were AEM Holdings, UMS Holdings, Frencken Group, Sunpower Group and Koufu Group. The only two stocks that did not outpace the STI were Ying Li International Real Estate and Q & M Dental Group Singapore.

At the same time, the small-cap stocks generated a median 7% total return in 2019. With a combined market cap of $58.5b as of end-2019, they averaged daily turnover of $55.3m a day.

Meanwhile, the FTSE ST Small-Cap Index, with 49 constituents, generated a total return of 15%.

Across Developed Asia outside Singapore, about 5,000 stocks of the same market cap listed generated a median total return of 9%. Meanwhile, around 4,000 listed across Emerging Asia generated 3%.

Small-cap stocks include over 160 stocks with a market cap between $100m and $1b as of 31 December.