Singapore Stock Market

The Straits Times Index (STI) is a market value-weighted stock market index based on the stocks of 50 representative companies listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Launched in the wake of a major sectoral re-classification of listed companies by the Singapore Exchange, which saw the removal of the "industrials" category,

the STI replaced the Straits Times Industrials Index (STII), and began trading 1 September 1998 at 885.26 points, in continuation of where the STII left off.


Then, it represented 78% of the average daily traded value over a 12-month period and 61.2% of total market capitalisation on the exchange.

Constructed by the Singapore Press Holdings, the Singapore Exchange and Professor Tse Yiu Kuen from the Singapore Management University, it comes under formal review at least once annually, and may also be reviewed on an ad-hoc basis when necessary.

One such review, for instance, raised the number of stocks from 45 to 50, which took effect when trading resumed on 18 March 2005.

This change reduced the index representation of the average daily traded value to 60%, while increasing its total market capitalisation to 75%.

New additions included after 5 February 2007 include Thai Beverage, Suntec REIT, Olam, Genting International, Labroy Marine and CapitaCommercial Trust. BIL, Dairy Farm, Haw Par Corporation and TPV Technology will be removed from the list.

With these changes, the 50 stocks at STI will capture 51 percent of the average daily value traded on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and 64% of the market value of stocks listed on SGX.The Singapore Exchange, London's FTSE Group, and Singapore Press Holdings have announced on 6 June 2007 that the Straits Times Index will be set for a major overhaul by the end of 2007.

The number of component stocks will be reduced from 50 to 30 and at the same time, 18 new indices will be created.

It is known that the new STI indices would be published on the FTSE website beginning September.

The revamped STI and the current STI will be displayed together then, until the switchover in December.