Young investors drawn to Singapore equities as safe harbour amid wild seas

SINGAPORE – Young investors in Singapore are turning their attention to the local market as they look for stability amid global market uncertainty.

The heightened interest is part of a broader homeward shift that brokerages are observing among their investor base.

Mr Joshua Chim, general manager of investment platform FSM Global Singapore, said Singapore investors are refocusing their attention on local stocks amid rising geopolitical uncertainty in the United States, a falling US dollar, and the strong performance of Singapore equities in 2025.

He added that tensions in the Middle East have underscored Singapore and the Singdollar’s appeal as safe-haven assets.

Mr Hubert Lim, a fourth-year accountancy and business student at Nanyang Technological University, is one of those investors turning homewards.

Mr Lim, who invests globally, has not bought into Singapore stocks yet and plans to start by buying shares in small and mid-cap companies he sees as having long-term growth potential.

“My capital is quite small, so I am focusing on high-growth stocks first,” he said.

Mr Lim could get some investment ideas from iEdge Singapore Next 50 indexes. The indexes track the 50 largest listed companies outside the 30 blue-chip constituents of the Straits Times Index. 

Among the 50 stocks are supermarket chain Sheng Siong; medtech company UltraGreen.ai; semiconductor plays UMS and Frencken; accommodation owner and operator Centurion; and transport operator ComfortDelGro. 

Mr Lim is not ruling out larger-cap stocks, which could form the income-generation portion of his portfolio, such as the three local banks. 

Ms Iris Phyo, a third-year banking and finance student at Singapore Polytechnic (SP), who invests in the US markets, is also beginning to find Singapore equities more attractive because of the economic and geopolitical backdrop.

“I am considering Singapore markets as a defensive allocation for my portfolio,” she said, adding that she is watching the transport and banking stocks. 

Her classmate, Mr Jarret Han, is new to investing and risk-averse. Therefore, he is avoiding the volatile US markets and wants to “build a good foundation” by investing in Singapore first.

New investors are entering the Singapore market while existing investors, like Mr Ryan Pang, a first-year business student at Singapore Management University, are staying invested. 

Mr Pang began investing in Singapore stocks during the Covid-19 market downturn. The majority of his portfolio is now allocated to the local market, with the rest invested in the US markets. 

Singapore, for him, is a long-term hold for the “stable dividends and relatively resilient stock performance”.

On the other hand, his investments in the US markets are mainly short-term trades, where he buys and sells to benefit from price movements instead of holding for long-term growth.

Mr Pang said that investors often neglect the benefits of investing in Singapore dollars in the local market compared with investing in overseas markets.

They are not exposed to currency risks here, unlike if they invest in the US, where they would have to convert their US stock earnings back to Singapore dollars.

As a result, a falling greenback would erode returns as the investor gets back less in Singapore dollar terms, he said.

Mr Ocean Cheng and Mr Dary Ong, both third-year banking and finance students at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), invested in Singapore stocks for the stability and dividend payouts. 

Mr Cheng said Singapore’s strong economic fundamentals, political stability and a resilient currency are factors in its favour.

However, he noted that Singapore equities often trade at lower multiples than stocks in the US and other regional markets.

Furthermore, liquidity – the ease of buying and selling – remains an important consideration, so Mr Cheng prefers to stay diversified, with his portfolio more heavily allocated to the US and European markets than to Singapore. 

Mr Ong noted that Singapore equities generally have strong governance and transparent regulations on top of consistent dividend payouts. 

The local market thus provides young investors with a reliable foundation for long-term investing, he said. 

Mr Ong also invests in the US through broad-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.

In February 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore launched the Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP), a $6.5 billion initiative designed to boost investor participation beyond the large-cap stocks. 

Mr Eric Xiao, head of sales (Asia) at CMC Markets, said the EQDP marked the inflexion point for Singapore’s equity markets.

He added that before the programme was launched, trading on CMC’s platform was “narrow and bank-heavy”.

Since its launch, investors are buying a wider range of Singapore stocks than before, with the fourth quarter of 2025 registering the broadest breadth of trade, he said.

“Investors are building thematic positions across industrials, technology, and property-adjacent names, not just parking capital in the three banks,” said Mr Xiao.

He added that the expansion of the EQDP in February signals a “sustained, structural commitment”, which may give retail investors more confidence to stay invested in the local markets. 

In a healthy market, information is accessible, and investors make decisions based on known facts.

The onus is on investors to cut through the noise, which includes hype, news headlines and analyst opinions, and focus on the company fundamentals.

Mr Daniel Ong, whose portfolio roughly comprises 60 per cent US stocks and 40 per cent Singapore stocks, said hype may surface ideas, but he does not follow these ideas blindly.

“I have to see whether it is reasonable for me to buy the stock,” the second-year banking and finance student at SP added.

Mr Lim from NTU finds out more about the companies he wants to invest in by doing his own research.

He does not rely only on research reports because these reports are widely available and if everyone were to read the same reports, no one would have an edge over the others. All of them would be taking the same action, as recommended by the report. 

Mr Lim said his advantage comes from his own research, using artificial intelligence to surface company- and stock-specific information and to form his own opinions.

“Building a clear thesis – what do I think about a company, why do I want to own its stock – makes a lot of difference,” he added. 

“What do I see in this company that other investors do not see?”

Some young investors have had a head start as they were equipped with the basic concepts of investment and finance during their diploma or university studies. 

Mr Dary Ong from NP said his banking and finance course provided him with “a structured framework to evaluate investments”, which included analysing financial statements, understanding valuation concepts and managing risks.

By using this framework, he invests on fundamentals instead of following the market sentiment.

There will be investors who are just starting out with little to no investment experience. 

There will also be investors who want to find out more about investments and the markets.

SGX Academy and brokerages organise seminars and events for these different groups of investors. 

Mr Ian Leong, chief executive of Tiger Brokers Singapore, said the brokerage runs such sessions online and in person every month. 

New and seasoned investors can pick the sessions that suit them. In this way, they get content that is relevant to where they are in their investment journey, instead of generic information that may not be of use to them.