Why investor interest in Singapore transport sector will wane in 2014

Sector troubled by a gamut of issues.

"Despite general economic improvements, the counters within the transportation sector failed to perform well in 2013 due to industry-specific challenges and issues," said OCBC Investment Research, enough to drive away potential investors from the sector.

The research firm specifically cited challenges and issues such as sustained competitive pressures in the aviation sector, demand-supply imbalance for the shipping sector, and the lack of fare increases for the land transportation sector.

"With some of these issues unlikely to be resolved in 2014, we are downgrading the overall sector to Underweight and expect investor interest to remain tepid," said OCBC.

It singled out ComfortDelgro though as its top pick in the Singapore transport sector.

"Out of the counters in our coverage, our top pick is ComfortDelgro... as we favour its diversified and stable earnings stream, attractive overseas operations, and strong domestic leadership in the taxi and bus segments."