Tariff woes spark S-Reits sell-off on Wednesday

[SINGAPORE] Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts, or S-Reits, slumped on Wednesday (Apr 9) afternoon, with almost all counters in the red.

Among the biggest losers were industrial S-Reits. Mapletree Logistics Trust was the biggest loser among all S-Reits, shedding close to 10 per cent as at 1.30 pm on Wednesday.

Other industrial S-Reits that fell included Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust, which slid 8.4 per cent, and ESR Reit, which fell 6.8 per cent.

Other S-Reits that did badly were US office Reits, including Prime US Reit, which fell 8.5 per cent, and Manulife US Reit which also shed 8.5 per cent.

S-Reits which held significant assets in China were not spared. CapitaLand China Trust, whose portfolio comprises mostly of shopping malls but also includes business parks and logistics parks, fell 8.8 per cent. Sasseur Reit, which owns four outlet malls in China, slid 5.7 per cent.

Darren Chan, senior research analyst at Phillip Securities Research, said that S-Reits’ performance on Wednesday could be part of a general market sell-off following a dip in the US market overnight.

All three major indices on Wall Street ended in the red on Tuesday over worries about a trade war following tariffs imposed globally by US President Donald Trump.

The S&P 500 shed 1.6 per cent to end at 4,982.77, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.8 per cent at 37,645.59. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.2 per cent to 15,267.91.

Chan added that markets are expected to be “extremely volatile” in the near term due to uncertainty over the impact of the tariffs.