For those who bothered keeping tabs, it was just over six months ago last July when we first vaulted the 4,000 barrier — a level once considered impenetrable, a mark where we stopped shy back in 2007, not long before the global financial crisis struck. Impressive as it is for now, this run may have further tailwinds with an additional $1.5 billion in Equity Market Development
Programme (EQDP) funds to backstop the final $1.1 billion to be deployed from the initial $5 billion.
Among Singapore’s army boys, “no horse run” refers to the especially fleet-footed among them. The uniquely Singapore phrase, a direct translation from Hokkien bo beh zao, which came from the horse-racing crowd, used to refer to incomparable thoroughbreds in a league of their own.
The Turf Club is gone, but local punters have plenty of other horses to bet on. Certainly, as we enter into the rain-soaked Year of the Double Fire Horse, investors who have not fled our shares are getting rewarded further with the Straits Times Index (STI) at a new all-time high of above 5,000 points, as Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered his budget speech.
