SGX Weekly Review | STI Rises Over 3% As Bank Stocks Lead Gains, DBS Group, UOB, And OCBC Hit New All-Time Highs

Singapore equities surged this week, propelled by a breakthrough peace agreement between the United States and Iran that substantially eased geopolitical tensions. The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ gained over 3% across the week, touching a fresh historical high during intraday trading on June 19.

In corporate action, local lenders spearheaded the rally to post record highs of their own, with $OCBC Bank(O39.SI)$ jumping nearly 5%, $DBS(D05.SI)$ advancing over 4%, and $UOB(U11.SI)$ climbing close to 3%. Meanwhile, $Singtel(Z74.SI)$ rose 1.87%, snapping a four-week losing streak.

Market News

Singapore’s key exports growth hits 22-year high of 38.4% in May on robust AI demand

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) expanded 38.4 per cent year on year in May, extending the 24.4 per cent rise in April, data from Enterprise Singapore showed on Wednesday (Jun 17).

The expansion marked the highest rise since December 2003, said DBS senior economist Chua Han Teng.

It also outperformed private-sector economists’ median forecast of 30.5 per cent year-on-year growth, a Bloomberg poll showed.

Economists raise inflation projections, lower growth forecasts in first MAS survey since Iran war

Private-sector economists raised their 2026 inflation forecasts sharply, while slightly lowering their growth expectations, the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) latest quarterly survey of professional forecasters released on Wednesday (Jun 17) indicated.

The full-year median forecasts came in at 2.3 per cent for headline inflation and 2 per cent for core inflation, both up from 1.5 per cent in the March survey.

With these increases, the economists’ predictions are closer to the upper end of the authorities’ 1.5 to 2.5 per cent forecast range for both headline and core inflation.

Singapore reclaims top spot in IMD world competitiveness ranking as business efficiency improves

Singapore has returned to first place in the 2026 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, rebounding from second place in 2025, displacing Switzerland at the top of the global leader board.

The annual index of 70 economies was published on Thursday (Jun 18) by the Institute for Management Development (IMD), a Lausanne-headquartered, independent business school with hubs in Singapore, Shenzhen and Cape Town.

Singapore’s competition watchdog unveils new measures to speed up investigation resolution

Singapore’s competition watchdog on Friday (Jun 19) unveiled new so-called “Fast Track Procedure” guidelines for businesses to resolve investigations more efficiently.

These guidelines follow the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore’s (CCS) review of its Practice Statement on the Fast Track Procedure. They will go into effect from Jul 1.

The revised procedure “facilitates the resolution of investigations into infringements of Sections 34 or 47 of the Competition Act, benefiting both businesses and CCS administratively”, the statutory board said.

Nasdaq-listed StoneX’s bullion arm to offer gold, silver vaulting services in Singapore, sources say

StoneX Bullion, a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed financial services provider StoneX Group, is in talks with institutional vaulting providers in Singapore to store and fulfil bullion orders in the coming months, industry sources told The Business Times.

People familiar with the matter added that this means the company’s clients in other parts of the world would have the option of choosing to vault their precious metals in the Republic.

It also means that StoneX Bullion will be in prime position to capture the growing interest in physical precious metals and the corresponding demand for storage facilities.