OREANDA-NEWS. The six largest constituent stocks of the SGX Healthcare Index averaged a price gain of 17.7% in the 2015 year thus far, with dividends boosting average total returns to 19.1%.

Over one-year and three-year periods, these six healthcare stocks generated average total returns of 10.8% and 59.3% respectively. Over the past five years, they have doubled average total returns to 101.5%.

The six constituents average a price-earnings ratio of 28.1 and a price-to-book ratio of 2.0. They also maintain an average dividend yield of 2.2% and average return on equity of 4.6%.

The SGX Healthcare Index is an indicative index comprising stocks that report at least half their revenues from healthcare in the last financial year and REITs with investments in healthcare facilities.

The Index, comprising 29 constituent securities with a combined market capitalisation of S$31.1 billion, generated total returns of 18.9% in the 2015 year-to-date. In comparison, the MSCI All Country Asia Pacific Health Care Index registered total returns of 16.3%, while the MSCI World Health Care Index posted total returns of 12.6%, on a Singapore dollar basis over the same period.

The Healthcare Index is computed by SGX, and weightings of component stocks are capped at a maximum of 10% at each semi-annual rebalance so that it is better diversified across a range of companies. Due to the relative market capitalisations of the 29 securities, the six largest constituents currently account for approximately 60% of the index weight.

The objective of the Index is to capture a broad representation of the healthcare segment, and complements the healthcare stocks under the two classification standards – Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) and Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB).

These 29 components are categorised across sub-industries including healthcare equipment, healthcare supplies, healthcare distributors, healthcare services, healthcare facilities, pharmaceuticals, office services & supplies, and healthcare REITs. The table below details the recent performances of the six largest constituents.