COMFORTDELGRO CORPORATION AND SMRT CORPORATION TO JOIN STI AFTER HALF-YEARLY INDEX REVIEW

Singapore & Hong Kong, 12 March 2009 – Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) and FTSE Group (FTSE) announced today the results of the half-yearly review of the Straits Times Index (STI) and FTSE ST Index Series. ComfortDelGro Corporation and SMRT Corporation will join the STI in place of Yanlord Land Group and Keppel Land.

Changes were also made to other FTSE ST indices. The list of changes is in Appendix 1, while Appendix 2 gives the full list of the latest component stocks of the STI and other major indices. The selection criteria used are in Appendix 3.

The changes to the STI and 19 other FTSE ST indices were approved by the independent FTSE ST Index Advisory Committee, which met today to review the indices in accordance with the index ground rules. Half-yearly index reviews ensure that the indices remain an accurate reflection of the market they represent. This is essential when the indices are used to benchmark investment portfolios and used as the basis of existing exchange traded funds (ETFs), warrants, futures and other index-linked products.

The STI reserve list after this review will comprise (in order of priority) Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, STX Pan Ocean Co., Yangzijiang Shipbldg Hldgs, Singapore Post and Singapore Land. Reserve lists are created at each half-yearly review and comprise the next five companies ranked in order of market capitalisation below the STI.
Companies in the reserve list will be included in the STI to replace any constituent stocks that may be excluded, in the event of corporate actions or mergers which impact the index between reviews.

All changes from this review will take effect from the start of trading on Monday, 23 March 2009, with the next review scheduled for Thursday, 10 September 2009.

For more information about the STI and FTSE ST Index Series, the full review results or the index ground rules, please visit www.ftse.com/st

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