Strongest Mid Cap Dividend yields over the past year

Over the course of 2012 the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index has maintained a higher dividend yield than the Straits Times Index (STI), the broader FTSE ST All Share Index, in addition to the regional FTSE Asia Pacific All Cap Index.

 In fact, looking back over the past 12 months the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index appreciated +22.4% in price, while providing a total return of +29.4% in Singapore Dollar terms. The approximate +7.0% difference, sourced by Bloomberg, represents reinvested dividend distributions that are weighed according to the weighting of the relevant stock within the Index. In the most recent monthly reports FTSE Group had estimated the difference between price appreciation and total return of the Mid Cap Index to be +6.2% in the 12 months ending 31 October.
 
Dividend yields for the stocks of the Mid Cap Index that distribute dividends varied from  +0.1% for Ezion Holdings [5ME] to +16.9% for STX OSV Holdings [MS7] over the 12 months ending 23 November. A recent and full list of the 12 month dividend history of the constituents can be found here.
 
The five Mid Cap stocks with the strongest dividend distributions over the 12 months ending 23 November, were as follows:

• STX OSV Holdings paid 16.9% in dividends which included a special cash dividend in August. The yield contributed to a 12 month total return of +41.2%. Current indicative yield is 7.4%.
• SATS Ltd [S58] paid 9.5% in dividends (also included a special dividend) boosting 12 month total return to +34.5%. Current indicative yield is 4.0%.
• Hutchison Port Holdings Trust [NS8U] paid a dividend yield of 8.2%, boosting 12 month total return to +35.2%. The current indicative yield of the Trust is 8.2%.
• CapitaRetail China Trust [AU8U] distributed 8.1% in dividends, boosting 12 month total return to +46.4%. The current indicative yield of the REIT is 6.3%.
• Pacific Andes Resources Development [P11] distributed 7.3% in dividends, contributing to a total return of -16.6% over the 12 months. Current indicative yield is 7.3%.

Of the 50 constituent stocks of the Index, the simple average dividend yield for the past 12 months was around 4.3%. A handful of stocks did not distribute dividends. Furthermore, the simple average of 4.3% does not take into account the different impact of dividend distributions on the Index because of the relevant stock’s weighting in the Index. For instance, consider the dividend yields of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust at 8.2% and Yangzijiang Shipping Holdings [BS6] at 6.1% over the past 12 months. As of the end of October, FTSE Group maintained that Hutchison Port Holdings Trust accounted for an 8.5% weighting in the Mid Cap Index versus a 2.8% weighting for Yangzijiang Shipping Holdings. Thus, the dividend yield of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust had more Index impact than Yangzijiang Shipping Holdings. Comparing the simple average yield to the actual weighted yield associated with the Index reveals that over the past 12 months the Index was more weighted to stocks with a dividend yield above 4.3%.