To The Moon

📉 ST Engineering & iFast: Hot Rally, Cold Reality — Buy the Dip or Bail?

Singapore’s stock market stars just hit turbulence — and investors are divided. Is this week’s sharp sell-off in ST Engineering ($ST Engineering(S63.SI)$  I) and iFast ($IFAST(AIY.SI)$  I) simply a healthy breather after parabolic rallies, or are cracks starting to appear beneath the surface?

With both names among Singapore’s most-watched growth plays in 2025, the answer could tell us a lot about investor psychology in today’s market.

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📊 ST Engineering: A Giant Stumbles

Shares of ST Engineering fell 6.3% this week, despite the company reporting higher first-half profits. For most companies, higher profits = higher stock price. So why the sell-off?

Valuation stretch: The stock has been on a tear, up more than 80% year-to-date before this pullback. Investors may have felt the rally had run too far ahead of fundamentals.

Profit-taking psychology: When a stock doubles in less than a year, short-term traders often “ring the register” at the first sign of weakness.

Macro backdrop: Defense and aerospace have been strong globally, but markets are increasingly asking: how long can geopolitical tailwinds and order books support premium valuations?

💡 Investor relevance: If you’re holding, the question is not whether ST Engineering is strong — it clearly is — but whether the market is willing to keep paying a higher and higher multiple for that strength.

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⚡ iFast: Fintech Darling Takes a Hit

iFast plunged 11.3% in a single day, its sharpest drop since April, after Cuscaden Peak Investments (Temasek-backed) trimmed its stake.

For a fintech growth story, that matters. Strategic shareholders reducing exposure sends a signal, intentional or not: maybe gains are priced in, maybe risk/reward is tilting.

Key dynamics:

Still up YTD: Despite the plunge, iFast is up nearly 20% in 2025, reminding us the broader trend remains positive.

Optics problem: A shareholder exit — even partial — makes retail investors question, “What do they know that we don’t?”

Business model: iFast benefits from secular growth in digital wealth management. But scaling profitably in a competitive environment remains a challenge.

💡 Investor relevance: Unlike ST Engineering’s macro-defense anchor, iFast is more sentiment-driven. Its price can swing sharply based on positioning, flows, and confidence.

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🔍 What History Teaches Us

Looking back, Singapore’s market has seen similar episodes:

Sea Ltd ($Sea Ltd(SE)$  ) enjoyed massive rallies on digital adoption but collapsed when growth slowed.

DBS ($DBS(D05.SI)$  ) has had phases of strong rallies followed by sharp corrections, usually around interest rate cycles.

Globally, names like Tesla and Shopify show how momentum-driven growth stocks can overshoot both ways.

The lesson? High-flyers often look unstoppable — until one event flips the script. The crucial skill is separating structural winners correcting temporarily from momentum names losing steam for good.

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🐂 The Bullish Case

Why you might buy the dip:

ST Engineering:

Strong order book in defense, aerospace, and urban solutions.

Global geopolitical tensions = sustained demand.

Track record of stable dividends, appealing to long-term investors.

iFast:

Positioned in the secular shift to digital finance and wealth management.

Still enjoying brand credibility and retail penetration.

Post-drop valuations may now look more reasonable relative to growth potential.

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🐻 The Bearish Case

Why you might stay away:

ST Engineering:

After an 80% run YTD, a 6% dip may not be enough of a reset.

Valuations could already be pricing in “perfect execution.”

Any slowdown in defense spending or order intake could spark further downside.

iFast:

Strategic shareholder trimming is rarely confidence-inspiring.

Growth trajectory is positive, but margins remain under pressure.

Sub-S$8 could look “cheap” on charts, but falling knives often bounce lower before stabilising.

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💡 Investor Psychology

Here’s where it gets interesting. Both names highlight a classic tension:

Momentum vs fundamentals. Momentum traders chase rallies, but fundamentals ultimately decide the long-term path.

FOMO vs discipline. It’s tempting to “buy the dip,” but if that dip is the start of a deeper correction, FOMO can turn into regret.

Signal vs noise. Are these dips telling us something bigger, or just short-term noise in otherwise bullish stories?

Retail investors often underestimate how much sentiment — not just numbers — drives price action in the short term.

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🚦 Takeaways for Retail Investors

So how should Tigers think about this setup?

1. Separate time horizons. If you’re a trader, ST Engineering and iFast dips can be opportunities for short-term rebounds. If you’re a long-term holder, ask whether valuations still leave enough upside.

2. Watch signals, not noise. For iFast, shareholder trims matter. For ST Engineering, order book visibility is the bigger signal.

3. Position sizing matters. Chasing dips is less risky if your exposure is small and you’re not all-in.

4. Remember history. Even the strongest names don’t move up in straight lines — corrections are part of the game.

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💬 Final Thoughts

Both ST Engineering and iFast are fascinating case studies in 2025’s market: high-growth darlings facing the reality check of valuation and sentiment.

👉 The big question: Are these dips gifts from the market 🎁, or warnings ⚠️ that the easy money has been made?

Would you add ST Engineering on weakness, betting on its defense backbone?

Or do you see iFast below S$8 as a rare bargain in fintech — or a falling knife?

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