Portfolio Update for February 2026

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This will be a relatively short post to update on my portfolio and transactions for the month of February.  

For the month of February, it remains a volatile month for global stock markets, with uncertainty spilling over into Singapore equities as well.  The biggest driver was a sharp rotation of monies out of tech stocks, sparked by renewed doubts over AI valuations.  After months of optimism, investors began questioning whether earnings could justify lofty prices, triggering sell-offs and increased volatility across markets, including Singapore.

At the same time, interest rate expectations remained stubbornly high.  The FED signaled no urgency to cut rates, keeping bond yields elevated.  This is especially so with the latest higher than expected PPI numbers.  This weigh on rate-sensitive sectors in Singapore such as REITs and high-dividend stocks, as investors compared equity yields against safer fixed-income alternatives.  Adding to the unease were geopolitical tensions, particularly the start of the war in Middle East, which pushed oil and gold prices higher and drove risk-off sentiment.  Rising energy prices also reignited concerns about inflation, complicating the outlook for monetary policy and equity valuations.

Closer to home, I have my fair share of mixed news.  Both CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) and ParkwayLife REIT (PWLR) have reported a decent set of earnings once again and their distributions per unit (DPU) are considered stable under current macroeconomic environment.  Details of the dividends received for the quarter will be posted next month.  On the other side, Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) have announced a quarter of lower earnings, despite its dividends per share (DPS) increasing to 66 cents this quarter.  This mixed bag caused the share price of DBS to plunge in the next few days as valuations have out-run the fundamentals and I bought into DBS for its dividends.  Whether this will be a good move, I will only know next quarter, or next year.  

Next was United Overseas Bank (UOB), whose DPS decreased to 71 cents, causing its share price to plunge immediately after release of results.  Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), however, kept its DPS relatively steady increasing to 42 cents from 41 cents in the prior year.  Together with the special dividend of 16 cents, the total DPS increased to 58 cents.  Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE) reported results within expectations, hence I can wait for the special dividends.  ComfortDelgro (CDG) also reported decent results and slight increase in dividends, which is pleasant news.  Companies with smaller allocations like Riverstone (RVS) and HRNetGroup (HRNG) also reported earnings and dividends.  Overall it was kind of a mixed bag, and I am just holding on.

The biggest disappointment came from Hong Leong Finance (HLF), which, on top of its disappointing performance, lowered its dividends by more than 38% to 6.15 cents from 10 cents in the prior year.  This brings back nightmares from my previous post when HLF also underperformed and disappointed investors with a 32% drop in dividends 2 years ago.  With the consistent underperformance, I am seriously considering to gradually remove HLF from my portfolio in tranches.  The only consolation for me is the allocation to HLF has declined from being the 5th largest allocation to 13th allocation in my portfolio at the end of the month, exacerbated by the plunge in share price due to its poor performance, and my partial sale of its shares.  Hence its impact on my portfolio is less significant, but my annual dividends collected could still take a big hit.

For this month, I did not inject any capital into the portfolio, and I used the proceeds from the sale of shares to buy the following shares:

SGX:    Aims Apac REIT

             CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust

             Development Bank of Singapore


On the other hand, I have sold the following shares:

SGX:    Hong Leong Finance

             Singapore Technologies Engineering

Total Portfolio Value has decrease by approximately 0.81% to around SGD 740K including proceeds from sale of shares waiting to be reinvested next month (SGD 751K including cash, and SGD 766K including cash and precious metals at current resale value).  I am pleased that despite the volatility and noise, overall market value of my portfolio stayed above SGD 700K and volatility is minimized with diversification.  With the release of results from all the companies, I will need to see what I can do to improve the dividends in the upcoming months as some companies have announced lower dividends.  Thus it is necessary for me to either inject more capital or reinvest more dividends to boost its dividend generation.  I guess that is all I can do, and for now, just looking forward to receiving the dividends in cash in upcoming month!

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