Questions:

• The STI is now trading at a P/E of 10.82 and a P/B of 1.61.
• What does that mean? a PE of 10 is generally regarded to be cheap, but a P/B of 1.61 can be pricey. Which figure should we pay attention to? 
• The HSI is now trading at a P/E of 12.46 and a P/B of 1.81.
• So is it more expensive than the STI?

For all this and more, I took a second look at historical index P/E and P/B today.

Time Series

First, HK:

Above is quarterly data, P/B is plotted on the right hand side. There was a 9-month period of outliers in 1999 where the PE shot up to >400, so I am assuming this was data error. The STI had no obvious errors, but told a much more striking P/E story:

P/E during the late 1990′s rises ...