Stock Nuggets: SG Banks Stumble. S-REIT ETF Reduction. Portfolio Resilience

1. Doing Nothing over DBS and OCBC Stumble

Like many of you, my feeds have been flooded over the past few days with hot takes on the pullback in SG banks.

My quick take: nothing fundamentally changed in their core underlying businesses this week. The market simply decided it was time to take some cream off a very rich cake.

I’m personally quite unfazed by this drop.

Firstly, bank valuations had been looking stretched after a massive run this year. Even with the recent dip, DBS (SGX: D05) and OCBC (SGX: O39) are still sporting impressive YTD gains of 30% and 47% respectively—and that is before factoring in dividends.

Furthermore, I already trimmed my exposure back in July and shared in August that despite the wealth management tailwinds, I am not expecting a repeat of the explosive growth from last quarter or when global interest rates first spiked in 2022.

With current prices remaining above my previous exit points and without any fresh fundamental triggers, doing nothing remains the most logical move for me.

That said, what makes sense to me might not be for you. You can read my August post, where I shared more on why different decisions can be right for different people.

2. Reduced S-REIT ETF Due to Lowered Conviction

Just before the SG bank pullback, I decided to sell a third of my holdings in Amova-STC AREIT (SGX: CFA).

I’ll be honest—the trade was triggered by the recent price weakness. However, underlying that trigger is my growing disappointment with the continued lacklustre performance of the REIT sector.

When I rotated out of my individual Mapletree REITs into this ETF, my expectation was that stabilised interest rates would provide a consistent, and potentially increasing payout.

While there was brief glimmers of hope early last year, that momentum fizzled out quickly. A quick review of the numbers shows that annual DPU payouts have continued to slide over the past four years!

Year	Q1 DPU	Q2 DPU	Q3 DPU	Q4 DPU	Total DPU
2023	S$0.0130	S$0.0123	S$0.0127	S$0.0131	S$0.0511
2024	S$0.0117	S$0.0115	S$0.0112	S$0.0111	S$0.0455
2025	S$0.0116	S$0.0117	S$0.0107	S$0.0106	S$0.0446
2026	S$0.0105	S$0.0103	S$0.0110	S$0.0106	S$0.0424

A drop in stock price or DPU doesn’t automatically mean I will hit the exit button.

But unlike an individual REIT or stock, where I can dive into operational numbers, balance sheets, and management commentary, an ETF doesn’t provide me that perspective.

This experience is a stark reminder of why I personally lean toward picking individual stocks rather than holding broad sector ETFs.

Looking ahead, I will likely scale down this position further and eventually exit entirely once I gain direct access to my CPF funds and am no longer constrained by the CPF stock limits.

3. Grateful for Portfolio Resilience

Less than a fortnight ago, I shared that my overall portfolio had reached a strong 21.6% YTD return.

Guess what? It crept up even further and hit 23.0%!

Despite the “sky is falling” headlines surrounding local bank stocks, my SG portfolio YTD return only dipped by less than one percent to 25.2%—largely thanks to renewed buying interest in AEM Holdings (SGX: AWX) and UMS Integration (SGX: 558).

Meanwhile, a strong rally across my US holdings, driven primarily by Arista Networks (ANET) and Shopify (SHOP), pushed my US portfolio return up by nearly 6% to 16.0%, overtaking the benchmark SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

It doesn’t always play out this smoothly, but when it does, it shows how diversification helps.

Having exposure across different geographic markets and asset classes not only dampens overall volatility, but it also takes your mind off steep, short-term drops in a few individual counters.

Related Posts

+22% YTD: Portfolio Exceeds Expectations (Q3 2026 Review)

DBS & OCBC 1H 2026: Happily “Wrong” (To Buy or Not To Buy?)

Trimmed DBS and OCBC: Cutting the Flowers?