- Straits Times Index (Singapore): ~4.96% dividend yield
- S&P 500 (USA): ~1.4% dividend yield. U.S. blue chips pay very little, as many firms reinvest profits for growth. Moreover, there’s dividend tax of 30%.
- Hang Seng Index (Hong Kong): ~3.4% yield. Hong Kong’s market is another traditionally high-yield one, but even the Hang Seng’s yield is over 1.5 percentage points lower than STI’s. (Hong Kong’s average yield was lifted by firms like banks and utilities, but dragged down by Chinese tech stocks that pay minimal dividends.)
Singapore’s stock market is attracting income investors in 2025 even after a stellar run in 2024, with the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) yielding around 5%! See the screenshot below from SPDR Straits Times Index ETF website as of 14 Apr 2025. It is rare for an index to be giving such high yields so this can be a good opportunity for income investors.
To put things in perspective:
