SG Morning Call｜Singapore Beats Indonesia as Biggest Southeast Asia Stock Market

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Wednesday. STI down 0.6%; YZJ Shipbldg down 3%; SATS down 2%.

Stocks in Focus

$HongkongLand USD(H78.SI)$: The property group posted a 5 per cent rise in underlying profit for its first quarter ended Mar 31, 2026, compared with the same period a year earlier. This was primarily due to lower net financing charges, offsetting reduced contributions from Singapore following the disposal of Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3 prior to the formation of its new fund, the group said on Tuesday. Shares of Hongkong Land closed at US$7.96 on Tuesday, down US$0.03 or 0.4 per cent, before the release of the results.

$YZJ Shipbldg SGD(BS6.SI)$: The company on Tuesday said it has secured US$1.03 billion in new orders for the year to date, bringing its outstanding order book to US$22.3 billion, the group said. The order wins bring the shipbuilder closer towards its target of US$4.5 billion for FY 2026, despite geopolitical tensions weighing on sentiment in the global shipbuilding market. Shares of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding closed S$0.02 or 0.5 per cent higher at S$3.94 on Tuesday, before the announcement.

$SIA(C6L.SI)$: Flight SQ321 in May 2024 may have flown into severe turbulence after the jet’s weather radar possibly failed to display a rapidly forming storm cloud, said Singapore’s transport safety investigator on Tuesday. The Transport Safety Investigation Bureau’s (TSIB) final report could not rule out that the Boeing 777’s radar failed to paint a storm cell or issue fault warnings. While the TSIB declined to name the weather radar system’s manufacturer, previous media reports indicated that the aircraft may have used a Honeywell radar. Shares of SIA rose 2 per cent to close S$0.13 higher at S$6.54 on Tuesday, before the news.

$Sembcorp Ind(U96.SI)$: Sembcorp Energy UK will partner digital infrastructure specialist Digital Reef to build phase one of a new data centre development at an industrial site in the UK. A planning application has been submitted for the project’s initial phase, which is designed to provide up to 280 megawatts capacity. Shares of Sembcorp Industries closed S$0.01 or 0.2 per cent higher on Tuesday to reach S$6.12, before the announcement.

$Delfi(P34.SI)$: The chocolate confectioner on Tuesday reported a 0.8 per cent dip in its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to US$16.8 million for the first quarter ended Mar 31, from US$17 million in the year before. The slight drop in Ebitda came even as net sales for the quarter rose 6.2 per cent year on year to US$159.1 million, the group said. Top-line growth was driven by a 19.6 per cent increase in the group’s own brands sales across the region, sustaining a momentum from late 2025. Shares of Delfi closed on Tuesday flat at S$1, before the announcement.

SG Local News

Singapore Beats Indonesia as Biggest Southeast Asia Stock Market

Indonesia continues to notch one grim milestone after another. The latest: losing its status as Southeast Asia’s largest stock market to Singapore.

The total market capitalization of Indonesian-listed companies has fallen well over 30% from a peak in January to $618 billion, while Singapore’s has climbed to $645 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Investor sentiment in Indonesia has increasingly soured in recent months amid uncertainties over a potential equities reclassification to frontier markets, as well as Fitch Ratings Inc. and Moody’s Ratings both cutting their credit rating outlooks to negative. Its stock benchmark sits at the bottom among global peers while the rupiah has touched a succession of record lows.

Meta Begins 8,000 Global Job Cuts in Asian Hub of Singapore

Meta Platforms Inc. is alerting thousands of employees that they’re being laid off, part of a restructuring aimed at improving efficiency and reducing costs while investing heavily in artificial intelligence.

The company began notifying workers around the world Wednesday morning, starting with employees in Asian hub Singapore, who got the note at 4 a.m. local time. European and US-based staff are expected to receive word early in their time zone as well, according to an internal memo.

Staff are being encouraged to work from home while the company cuts roughly 8,000 roles globally. This latest round of cuts is expected to hit Meta’s engineering and product teams in particular and additional layoffs could come later in the year, said people familiar with the company’s plans, who asked not to be named as the information is not public.