SINGAPORE - The 30 most actively traded stocks on the Singapore Exchange by turnover more than doubled the Straits Times Index's (STI) gain with average total returns of 11.5 per cent in the first eight months this year, SGX said in a report on Wednesday (Sept 4).

The benchmark index generated a 4.8 per cent return for the period.

The 30 most actively traded stocks included six non-STI stocks, namely: Mapletree Logistics Trust, Suntec Reit (real estate investment trust), Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust, AEM Holdings and Mapletree Industrial Trust.

These six stocks averaged daily turnover of $84 million a day, and averaged a 27.8 per cent total return over the eight-month period, SGX noted.

While equipment manufacturer AEM Holdings is a top 200 stock by market cap, it ranked as a top 30 stock by turnover over the past eight months. Similar turnover rankings that came in significantly ahead of market cap rankings were observed with Hi-P International, UMS, Rex International, First Reit and Valuetronics, the Singapore bourse explained.

The STI represents 30 of the largest capitalised and most actively traded stocks in Singapore.

The benchmark index generated a 4.8 per cent total return in the first eight months of 2019, which in annualised terms, was about one-fifth lower than the average annualised total returns of 9.2 per cent for the preceding 10 years, SGX added.