OREANDA-NEWS. Singapore Exchange lists 10 companies classified by the Global Industry Classification System (GICS®) as Telecommunications stocks, and they have a combined market capitalisation of S$75.4 billion. 

According to GICS®, the Telecommunication Services sector comprises companies that provide communications services primarily through a fixed-line, cellular or wireless, high bandwidth and/or fiber optic cable network. As a global transport and finance hub, Singapore has a well-integrated, well-connected communications ecosystem.

Singapore’s three largest listed telecoms operators – Singapore Telecommunications, StarHub and M1 – have a combined market capitalisation of S$75.1 billion. Singtel and StarHub are both constituent stocks in the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI). 

In the January-June 2016 period, these three stocks averaged a total return of 7.3%, bringing their one-year and three-year total returns to -1.8% and 15.3% respectively. 

The three telcos maintain an average dividend yield of 5.0%. They averaged a Return on Equity (ROE) of 69.6%, and a price-earnings ratio (P/E) of 16.1. 

ROE indicates how profitable a company is by comparing its net income to its average shareholders' equity, and measures how much shareholders earned for their investment in the company. P/E measures a stock price relative to its per-share earnings, and is an indicator of what the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its current profits.

M1 will release its financial results for the half-year ended 30 June 2016 on 15 July. Singtel and StarHub are expected to release their results for the three months ended 30 June 2016 in August.