To The Moon

👋 Hey SGX fam — if you blinked last week, you basically missed the move. The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ just printed its strongest monthly gain since November 2020, cracked a fresh all-time high on Monday, and a certain shipbuilder decided to rip nearly +19% in five sessions off the back of a record earnings print. Buckle up — here's the full play-by-play, the why, and what actually matters next.

  🎇The Setup: STI's Monster July (And an Even Fresher High)

  The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ climbed +8.8% in July — its best monthly performance since November 2020. It ended the month at 5,628.50 and notched an all-time high of 5,713.19 on July 29. For the first seven months of 2026, the STI's total return sits at +24.0%.

  And then Monday happened. With Singapore returning from the National Day long weekend (market closed Monday Aug 10 for NDP), the STI reopened and immediately marched to a new record close of 5,754.17 on Aug 11 — up +0.98% on the day, with the intraday peak hitting 5,774.21. That pushes the year-to-date gain to +23.85%, and the 52-week range now reads 4,187.38 – 5,774.21.

  🎢Attribution: Why Singapore, Why Now

  July's leadership looked nothing like the first half of 2026. The semiconductor names that led H1 got hit with profit-taking, and capital rotated hard into banks, REITs, property, and transport-related counters. Because Singapore's benchmark is unusually heavy in financials, industrials, and transport — unlike several North Asian markets — the $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ outperformed even as chips pulled back.

  🏦 Who actually drove the tape: STI bank stocks averaged +13.3% in July, with OCBC again the STI's single best-performing constituent. Among stocks with market caps above S$1B, financials dominated the top-30 leaderboard.

  The structural story underneath is even bigger. Since the end of 2019, the three local banks have more than doubled their weight in both the MSCI AC ASEAN Index and the FTSE ST ASEAN Index. So every bank rally now hits the index with a bigger hammer. The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ ETF's annualized total return since end-2019 has climbed to 13.1%, and even a plain-vanilla monthly DCA plan would have compounded at ~10.7% annualized.

  The Macro Tailwind

  The market backdrop has also helped.

• MAS tightened again in July — the second consecutive tightening — nudging up the S$NEER policy band’s appreciation slope as import-cost pressures build into H2.

• GDP: private-sector economists now forecast around 3.5% growth for 2026, slowing to roughly 2.5% in 2027. Singapore entered H2 “from a position of strength”, per the IMF, supported by AI-related semiconductor demand, infrastructure investment and a well-capitalised banking system.

• The Fed held rates unchanged in July for the fifth meeting in a row.

  So the local market is benefiting from a combination of stronger domestic fundamentals, sector rotation and a relatively supportive regional positioning.

  But the flow picture shows that investors are not simply buying everything. There are two main ways to go as the top players in the market.

  🚢 The Star: $YZJ Shipbldg SGD(BS6.SI)$ (Yangzijiang Shipbuilding) — +18.7% in Five Sessions

   $YZJ Shipbldg SGD(BS6.SI)$ became the standout performer after releasing record H1 earnings on Thursday, Aug 6, after market hours.

  📚 The Event — Record H1 Earnings

• +28.4% H1 net profit → RMB5.4B (US$800M), a record

• +36.2% H1 revenue → RMB17.5B

• 37.1% shipbuilding gross margin, up from 35.2%

• US$22.4B order book — 256 vessels, deliveries through 2030

  Net profit hit a record RMB5.4 billion (US$800 million) for H1 to June 30, up 28.4% YoY.

  Revenue surged 36.2% to RMB17.5 billion, while EPS came in at 136.4 fen, versus 106.02 fen previously.

  The margin expansion came from progressively delivering vessels secured at higher contract prices, together with a favourable product-mix shift toward ultra-large LNG dual-fuel container ships and very large ethane carriers.

  The new Hongyuan yard also started contributing.

“现在交船就像下饺子一样” — delivering ships like dumplings.

  China’s H1 2026 new shipbuilding orders jumped +173.1% YoY and captured over 80% of global share. Yangzijiang now ranks #3 globally in containership order book.

  That gives the rally a fundamental backbone: investors are not only buying the shipbuilding theme — they are seeing the earnings show up.

  But not every interesting SGX move this week came from a large-cap earnings beat.

  🏦 The Dark Horse: $ZICO Hldgs(40W.SI)$ (ZICO Holdings) — +8.9%

    $ZICO Hldgs(40W.SI)$ quietly climbed from S$0.056 on Aug 4 to S$0.061 on Aug 11, or about +8.9%, before trading around S$0.064 on Aug 12.

  Unlike Yangzijiang, this was not an earnings pop.

  It was more of a story rerating.

  📖 The Narrative Behind the Move

  On July 27, SIAS published a “kopi-C with the CEO” feature detailing how ZICO has spent the better part of a decade shedding its identity as a law-firm network and pivoting into a financial-services platform.

  Its businesses now span trust advisory, wealth planning, fund management and corporate finance.

  Late-July volume also spiked to 3.6M–4.35M shares, compared with a daily average of roughly 580K.

  So while Yangzijiang represents an earnings-driven rerating, ZICO shows that investors are also beginning to look further down the market for new stories.

  That brings us to the bigger question.

  ❓ Impact Analysis: What This All Means Going Forward

  The easy part of this rally is over.

  After a +24% seven-month run, the STI’s discount to consensus target price has noticeably narrowed.

  That means valuation expansion alone probably cannot carry the market much further.

  From here, it is increasingly about earnings delivery.

  The Three Things That Decide the Next Leg

1. Bank earnings (Aug 6–7 results)
   Can record non-interest income and loan growth keep offsetting lower local rates? DBS was already at S$77.49 on Aug 11, up +37.5% YTD.

2. Sembcorp’s Aug 13 results
   The stock already saw the largest institutional outflow and a target cut to S$6.71, so expectations are clearly shifting ahead of the release.

3. The rate ceiling
   With the Fed on hold for a fifth straight meeting, REITs and rate-sensitive sectors remain vulnerable if CPI, due Aug 12, runs hot.

  The Five Structural Drivers Still in Play

  The broader Singapore story remains supported by:

• AI-driven productivity

• Investment-led growth

• Infrastructure and connectivity

• Trade and technology fragmentation

• Singapore’s role as a global business hub

  At the stock level, though, investors are now differentiating much more aggressively between companies that can convert those tailwinds into earnings and those simply riding the index higher.

  That is probably the biggest shift to watch from here.

  💬 What’s Your View on the $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ ?

  After such a strong run, do you think the STI can keep climbing — or is a pullback due first?

  🎰 Win Tiger Coins: Comment your view to enter — 5 winners will receive 10 Tiger Coins each.
💡 Bonus: Share the post or tag a friend for extra Tiger Coins.

 Good allocation isn’t just about investing — it’s also about keeping everyday life organised.

  Just like a well-balanced portfolio, the right organisation can make business trips, travel and workouts a little easier. The new Tiger Toiletry Bag features a dual-layer dry & wet separation design with plenty of space to keep your essentials neatly organised, wherever you go.

  Redeem the new Tiger Toiletry Bag now in Tiger Coin Mall. https://laohu8.com/J/redeemGift?goodID=100538&type=delivery