SG Morning Call｜Singapore Bonds Ride Out Crude Oil Surge as Other Havens Falter

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Monday. STI down 1.9%; Nio fell 8%; UOL fell 4%; Singtel, SGX fell 3%; SIA fell 2%; OCBC fell 1%.

Stocks in Focus

$Mapletree Log Tr(M44U.SI)$: The trust has entered into an agreement to acquire a Grade A warehouse in Bhiwandi, Mumbai, for INR3,888 million (S$53.6 million), the manager announced on Saturday. The transaction marks the trust’s first expansion into the Mumbai logistics market. Shares of MLT ended at S$1.21, S$0.01 or 0.8 per cent higher on Friday.

$Lendlease Reit(JYEU.SI)$: The Reit’s preferential offering of 352.4 million units was only 62.2 per cent subscribed, said its manager on Monday. The remaining 37.8 per cent of the offering, representing roughly 133.2 million unsubscribed units, will now fall to the joint underwriters: DBS, OCBC and UOB. At the issue price of S$0.558 per unit, the underwriters will have to absorb around S$74.3 million worth of stock. The new units will commence trading on Thursday, raising around S$196.6 million in total. Units of the Reit rose 1.8 per cent to close S$0.01 higher at S$0.575 on Friday.

$AEM SGD(AWX.SI)$: The semiconductor equipment maker has partnered with ASE Technology to develop “disruptive test solutions” for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing markets. To support this collaboration, an ASE subsidiary is investing about S$12 million in AEM through a private placement of 3.35 million shares priced at S$3.591 each. Shares of AEM closed 8.5 per cent or S$0.32 higher at S$4.10 on Friday, before the news.

SG Local News

Singapore Bonds Ride Out Crude Oil Surge as Other Havens Falter

Singapore’s bonds have beaten all their developed-market peers this year as the war in Iran has bolstered haven demand, and fund managers say they are still one of the safest places to be.

A Bloomberg index of sovereign debt from the island state has returned 0.8% so far in 2026, outperforming 13 other global counterparts, even as surging oil prices have buffeted most fixed-income assets. That sets them apart from many traditional havens such as US Treasuries and the yen that have declined.

Singapore has earned the reputation as a haven and may have “attracted capital inflows as foreign investors seek refuge during times of heightened geopolitical risk,” said Wei Ming Cheong, a fund manager at Eastspring Investments in Singapore.

The relative outperformance of Singapore’s bonds is likely to continue, barring any sustained impact on the nation’s macro fundamentals, he said.