MEDIA and property company Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) paid the highest yield among large and medium-sized stocks over the past year, a new report has shown.

The payout of 9.7 per cent for the 12 months ended March 5 was boosted by a special dividend from the successful listing of SPH Reit.

SPH had paid a final dividend of 15 cents per share for the 2013 financial year, and an interim dividend of seven cents.

On top of these, there was a special dividend in relation to the listing of SPH Reit of 18 cents, to take the total dividend payout for the financial year to 40 cents.

At Thursday's closing price of $4.14, that works out to a dividend yield of 9.7 per cent.

SPH was the top-yielding stock in a report by SGX My Gateway, the bourse operator's investor education portal.

The report compiled the stocks with the highest yields on the FTSE Singapore Index, which contains 41 large and medium-sized stocks.

The other high-yielders on the index included port operator Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, property and retail group Wing Tai Holdings, electronics manufacturer Venture Corporation, and industrial landlord Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust.

These stocks offered 12-month dividend yields of between 6 per cent and 9 per cent, said the SGX My Gateway report.

It added that the FTSE Singapore Index provided the highest yield among its contemporary indexes in other Asian countries.

"Among 1,244 of Asia's largest stocks, those listed on Singapore Exchange (SGX) maintain the highest dividend yield," said SGX My Gateway.

The FTSE Singapore Index maintained a yield of 3.6 per cent.

This was followed by the FTSE Thailand Index which paid out 3.56 per cent, and the FTSE China Index at 3.34 per cent.