To The Moon

2023 Performance Highlights In 2023, the ETFs that focused on the US and India markets outperformed the other regions, while the ETFs that targeted the China market underperformed. The strong performance of the US and India ETFs was driven by two main factors: the resilience of the US technology sector, which accounted for about one-third of the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ , and the high growth potential of the Indian economy, which is expanding by more than 6% annually. India, US & Gold topped the SGX ETF market in 2023, with 5 New ETFs Launching Different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, gold and REITs had varying returns in 2023, as measured by the ETFs that invest in them. The ETF that invests in gold was the best performer among the other classes, beating the collected returns of the other three asset classes. $SPDR Gold Shares(GLD)$ delivered a 12% return in SGD terms last year, bringing its cumulative returns since the end of 2019 to 31%, or a 7% annualised return in SGD terms. The value of the gold ETF increases were largely attributed to the global uncertainty and risk that influenced the outlook of investors and businesses. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF USD counter ended 2023 at S$191.17 per unit. This ETF has a minimum trading size of one unit, which corresponds to ~0.094 ounces of Gold. The prices of physical gold also hit record highs in December 2023. 2023 ETF Launches The year 2023 saw the introduction of five new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), all of them focused on equities. Among these, two ETFs offered exposure to the Asian market, excluding Japan, with an emphasis on climate action and technology sectors. These were the $ISHARES AXJCLIMATE S$(ICM.SI)$ and the $CSOP SEA TECH ETF S$(SQQ.SI)$. The other two ETFs targeted the Chinese market. The $CGS FG CSI1000 S$(GRO.SI)$ aims to track the performance of the CSI 1000 Index, which consists of 1000 large and mid-cap companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The $CSOP DIV ETF S$(SHD.SI)$ seeks to provide investors with a stable income stream by investing in high-dividend-paying companies that are part of the SSE Dividend Index. Finally, the $CF VN 30 SC ETF SG$(VNM.SI)$ offers access to the Vietnamese equity market, by replicating the performance of the Vietnam 30 Sector Cap Index, which covers 30 leading companies across various sectors in Vietnam. The MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Climate Action Index ETF ended 2023 with a S$618 million AUM, ranking with the sixth highest AUM among the SGX-listed ETFs. The Index measures the performance of companies that are leading their sector peers in terms of their climate transition readiness and actions, and selects the top 50% of companies in each GICS sector based on their transition risks, emission reduction targets and climate risk management. The iShares MSCI Asia ex Japan Climate Action ETF attracted seed investors such as Prudential, Temasek and Singlife. Collectively, the five ETF debutants attracted S$765 million in net inflows for 2023. The complete list of ETFs listed for trading on SGX are detailed below. Note the table does not include total expense ratios which can be found here. ETF Name SGD Ticker USD Ticker CNH Ticker Asset Class Geo. Focus 2023 Flows S$M 1Y Total Return % (SGD) End of 2023 AUM S$M iShares USD Asia HY Bond ETF USD QL3 O9P Fixed Income Asia -473.6 2.7 1,606 SPDR Straits Times Index ETF ES3 Equities Singapore -85.4 4.1 1,527 SPDR Gold Shares GSD O87 Gold Gold -85.6 11.6 1,253 ABF Singapore Bond Index A35 Fixed Income Singapore 6.9 4.4 1,002 Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF G3B Equities Singapore 46.6 4.5 688 iShares MSCI Asia ex Japan Climate Action ETF USD ICM ICU Equities Asia 623.7 N/A 618 Nikko AM SGD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF MBH Fixed Income Singapore 33.4 8.4 573 ICBC CSOP FTSE Chinese Gov Bond Index ETF USD Acc CYX Fixed Income China -2.0 0.6 480 NikkoAM-StraitsTrading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF CFA COI REITs Asia 36.1 0.3 394 Lion-Phillip S-REIT ETF CLR REITs Singapore 73.8 6.3 371 Lion-OCBC Securities Hang Seng Tech ETF HKD HST HSS Equities China 19.7 -10.3 314 ICBC CSOP FTSE Chinese Government Bd Index ETF USD CYC Fixed Income China -621.2 -4.2 288 NikkoAM-ICBCSG China Bond ETF RMB ZHD ZHY Fixed Income China 0.1 0.0 235 SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust S27 Equities U.S. 17.3 24.2 125 Phillip SGD Money Market ETF SGD MMS MMT Fixed Income Singapore -23.9 2.5 124 Xtrackers II Singapore Government Bond UCITS ETF 1C KV4 Fixed Income Singapore -4.3 3.5 119 iShares J.P. Morgan USD Asia Credit Bond ETF USD QL2 N6M Fixed Income Asia 4.8 7.8 95 iShares MSCI India Climate Transition ETF USD QK9 I98 Equities India -19.9 14.3 90 CSOP iEdge Southeast Asia+ TECH Index ETF SQQ SQU Equities Asia 86.9 N/A 89 Lion-OCBC Securities China Leaders ETF SGD YYY YYR Equities China 5.0 -11.4 75 CSOP iEdge S-REIT Leaders Index ETF SRT REITs Singapore -19.2 5.1 72 UOB APAC Green REIT ETF GRN GRE REITs APAC -0.8 -0.4 65 Phillip SING Income ETF OVQ Equities Singapore -3.6 5.0 59 Lion-OCBC Securities Singapore Low Carbon ETF ESG ESU Equities Singapore -0.9 5.9 57 Xtrackers MSCI China UCITS ETF 1C TID LG9 Equities China -6.7 -13.2 55 NikkoAM-ICBCSG China Bond ETF SGD ZHS Fixed Income China -9.7 -0.2 41 CGS Fullgoal Vietnam 30 Sector Cap ETF USD VNM VND Equities Vietnam 31.9 N/A 29 NikkoAM-StraitsTrading MSCI China EV & FM ETF EVS Equities China 0.9 -23.6 26 Principal S&P Ethical Asia Pacific Div ETF USD QR9 P5P Equities APAC 0.9 8.8 25 CSOP CGS-CIMB FTSE Asia Pac Low Carbon Index ETF USD LCS LCU Equities APAC -299.9 10.8 21 United SSE 50 China ETF JK8 Equities China -0.4 -13.1 18 CGS Fullgoal CSI 1000 ETF USD GRO GRU Equities China 15.7 N/A 15 Phillip SGX APAC Dividend Leaders REIT ETF USD BYJ BYI REITs APAC -0.8 3.4 13 Xtrackers FTSE Vietnam Swap UCITS ETF 1C HD9 Equities Vietnam -0.3 5.8 11 Xtrackers MSCI Indonesia Swap UCITS ETF 1C KJ7 Equities Indonesia -0.2 4.9 11 UOBAM Ping An ChiNext ETF SGD CXS CXU Equities China -0.6 -21.3 10 Principal FTSE ASEAN 40 USD QS0 M62 Equities ASEAN 0.0 2.0 10 CSOP Huatai-PineBridge SSE Dividend Index ETF SHD Equities China 6.7 N/A 6 Amundi MSCI India II UCITS ETF USD Acc G1N Equities India -8.7 17.4 6 CSOP CSI STAR and CHINEXT 50 Index ETF SCY Equities China 0.6 -22.8 6 SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust D07 Equities U.S. 0.0 14.2 4 Amundi MSCI Emerging Markets III UCITS ETF USD Acc H1N Equities EM -2.2 7.6 4 Xtrackers MSCI Singapore UCITS ETF 1C O9A Equities Singapore -2.4 3.1 3 Phillip MSCI SG Daily (-1x) Inverse Prod SGD SSS SSU Equities Singapore -4.2 -4.0 2 Phillip MSCI SG Daily (2x) Leveraged Prod SGD LSS LSU Equities Singapore -0.8 -9.4 1 2024 Market Outlook The regional outlook for most of 2023 was influenced by several factors, such as the higher Fed Funds Rate of 5.25% to 5.50%, the global semiconductor sales and inventory contraction, and the property downturn in China. These factors also present potential inflection points in 2024 that could affect the market conditions. If the inflection points do not materialise, stocks and investors would likely continue to pursue strategies to optimize value and risk-to-returns. According to Goldman Sachs' Asset Management Outlook 2024, investors should adopt an active approach with more emphasis on diversification and risk management. https://www.sgx.com/research-education/market-updates/20240110-india-us-gold-topped-sgx-etf-market-2023-5-new-etfs