Nonetheless, shareholders at the exchange’s 26th AGM on Oct 9, very much aware of how the market has been lacklustre for years, wonder about the sustainability of the recent gains. Shareholder Vincent Tan’s concern is that the recent market gains may have been front-run by other parties, as the three fund managers known to have been given a $1.1 billion mandate out of the $5 billion are not known to have actually deployed their allocation. “Perhaps the genius is in not revealing too many details and letting the animal spirits run,” says Tan.
Singapore’s equities markets are now in a bullish phase not seen in years, and the record earnings and share price of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) reflect the general optimism. Together with the Straits Times Index (STI) at record levels, FY2025 earnings increased by 15.9%, driven by broad-based growth, including the keenly watched equities trading segment.
Thus far, the nine new listings on SGX have raised over $2.2 billion, four more have announced their plans for initial public offerings (IPOs), and numerous more are in the pipeline. SGX has also set clear medium-term targets to achieve top-line growth of 6% to 8% and aims to boost its dividend payout further. From a total of 37.5 cents paid for FY2025, SGX hopes to increase its FY2026 payout to 44.5 cents, and to increase by an additional 0.25 cents per quarter in FY2027 and FY2028.
