Investing is the best way for you to grow your wealth steadily and achieve a comfortable retirement.
As a new investor, you may be wondering which stocks to include in your portfolio.
The best category to look at are the blue-chip stocks as these are large, reliable businesses that have stood the test of time.
Most of them also pay out a dividend which provides you with a source of passive income.
Here are four dependable Singapore blue-chip stocks that are suitable for a beginner investor’s portfolio.
DBS needs no introduction, being Singapore’s largest bank by market capitalisation.
The bank offers a comprehensive range of banking, insurance, and investment services for both individuals and corporations.
DBS is perfect for a beginner investor as it is the pillar of Singapore’s economy, being one of the three large local banks.
The lender also reported a stellar set of earnings for the first nine months of 2024 (9M 2024).
Total income rose 11% year on year to S$16.8 billion on the back of a 5% year-on-year increase in commercial book net interest income.
DBS is benefitting from an overall higher interest rate environment that has buoyed its net interest income.
Net profit stood at S$8.8 billion, up 12% year on year.
In tandem with the good results, DBS raised its quarterly dividend by 22.7% year on year to S$0.54.
An investment in DBS should provide you not just with a good night’s sleep but also bring in passive income every three months.
CEO Piyush Gupta has a sanguine outlook for this year and expects pretax profit to be around 2024 levels.
Stay tuned as DBS reports its 2024 earnings in the morning of 10 February 2025.
Singapore Technologies Engineering, or STE, is a global technology and engineering group with clients spread across the aerospace, smart city, defence, and public security sectors.
The group also pays quarterly dividends and boasts customers in more than 100 countries.
STE reported a solid set of earnings for the first half of 2024 (1H 2024).
Revenue rose 13.5% year on year to S$5.5 billion while net profit climbed nearly 20% year on year to S$336.5 million.
The engineering giant also released an encouraging business update for the third quarter of 2024 (3Q 2024).
9M 2024 revenue jumped 14% year on year to S$8.3 billion with broad-based revenue increases across all three of STE’s divisions.
Contract wins for 9M 2024 also totalled S$8.3 billion, lifting STE’s order book to S$26.9 billion as of 30 September 2024.
Meanwhile, the engineering outfit also declared a quarterly dividend of S$0.04 per share, taking its annualised dividend to S$0.16.
STE’s 2024 earnings will be released in the morning of 27 February 2025.
CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, or CICT, is Singapore’s largest REIT by market capitalisation.
CICT’s portfolio comprises 21 properties in Singapore, two in Germany, and three in Australia.
The REIT’s total assets under management stood at S$26 billion as of 31 December 2024.
CICT reported a respectable set of earnings for 2024 despite the tough macroeconomic conditions.
Gross revenue inched up 1.7% year on year to S$1.6 billion while net property income rose 3.4% year on year to S$1.15 billion.
Distribution per unit crept up 1.2% year on year to S$0.1088.
Units of the REIT provide a trailing distribution yield of 5.6%.
Apart from having solid financials, CICT also boasts robust operating metrics and has a strong sponsor in real estate investment manager CapitaLand Investment Limited (SGX: 9CI).
Portfolio committed occupancy stood at 96.7% with the retail portion having near full occupancy at 99.3%.
The portfolio also enjoyed positive rental reversion of 8.8% and 11.1% for its retail and commercial segments, respectively.
2024 shopper traffic and tenant sales also rose 8.7% and 3.4%, respectively, attesting to the popularity of CICT’s retail malls.
Singapore Exchange Limited, or SGX, is Singapore’s sole stock exchange operator.
The group maintains a platform for the buying and selling of a wide variety of securities such as derivatives, equities, foreign exchange contracts, and bonds.
SGX is suitable for a new investor as it has a natural competitive moat as Singapore’s only bourse operator.
The group also reported a resilient set of earnings for its fiscal 2024 (FY2024) ending 30 June 2024.
Revenue rose 3.1% year on year to S$1.2 billion.
Net profit (excluding exceptional items) increased by 4.5% year on year to S$525.9 million.
SGX also upped its quarterly dividend from S$0.085 to S$0.09, taking the annualised dividend per share to S$0.36.
The group’s shares offer a reliable forward dividend yield of 2.9%.
Management intends to grow the group’s revenue by between 6% to 8% per annum in the long term, and for the dividend per share to increase by a mid-single-digit percentage every year in the medium term.
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