Enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) is another re-rating thesis, with STI sales per employee up by 38% from 2021 to 2025, despite the total number of employees falling by 31%. “We believe this is partly from automation and AI,” he says. “As government enterprise AI initiatives accelerate, we expect more operating leverage to drive earnings upgrades.”
Maybank Securities analyst Thilan Wickramasinghe has lowered its year-end target for the Straits Times Index (STI) to 5,500 points from 5,600 points previously, after the consensus downgraded its earnings per share (EPS) estimates by 2% due to higher energy costs.
That said, he believes the index’s re-rating thesis - including liquidity and the Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) measures - remains intact. Of the $3.95 billion disbursed so far, evidence of material deployment is “not yet visible”. Since the first tranche was released in 3Q2025, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) saw $2.9 billion in institutional outflows, Wickramasinghe points out.
