S’pore stocks up after Trump’s U-turn on Greenland; OCBC and UOB hit record highs

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s stock market rose this week after US President Donald Trump said he would not use force to annex Greenland and backed down from plans to slap fresh tariffs on European countries.

The Republic’s banking heavyweights led the gains, pushing the Straits Times Index to a record-breaking 4,893.69 on Jan 23, before the benchmark index pared gains to close up 0.87 per cent at 4,891.45 for the week.

Shares of UOB surged past $39 for the first time on Jan 23 before closing at a record high of $39.50. The stock was up nearly 8 per cent for the week.

OCBC Bank also touched a fresh high on Jan 23, closing up 4.52 per cent at $21.29 for the week. DBS Bank climbed to $58.82 on Jan 23 but pared some gains to close the week flat at $58.65, remaining below its previous record close of $59.12 on Jan 16.

To encourage more trading, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is proposing to

reduce the minimum amount required to invest in stocks and other instruments

.

This will be done by reducing the standard board lot sizes from the current 100 units to 10 for instruments above $10 and up to $100; and from 100 units to one unit for those priced above $100.

Besides stocks, the changes will also cover stapled securities, real estate investment trusts, business trusts, company warrants excluding special purpose acquisition company warrants, as well as depository receipts and depository shares.

The bourse said in a consultation paper released on Jan 23 that the proposed move would make higher-priced stocks more affordable and accessible to investors, which could in turn broaden investor participation and increase trading activity.

New listings on SGX

Shares of The Assembly Place (TAP) surged on the first day of trading on Jan 23, as the firm became the second co-living operator to list on the SGX.

The counter opened on the Catalist board at 31 cents, 34.8 per cent above its initial public offering (IPO) price of 23 cents. The stock then rose to a high of 33 cents before paring gains to close at 29 cents on Jan 23.

TAP announced on Jan 22 that its public offer of two million shares was around 35.5 times subscribed with 1,125 valid applications, amounting to 71.1 million shares. Its 48.3 million placement shares were also subscribed 3.9 times.

The company had offered a total of 50.3 million invitation shares.

KGI Securities analysts on Jan 22 initiated coverage on TAP with an “outperform” rating and a target price of 35 cents, thanks to its asset-light growth strategy and plans to expand to more than 10,000 rooms for lease by 2030.

TAP is the second Singapore company to list on the SGX in 2026, following cloud communications platform Toku, which made its debut on the Catalist board on Jan 22.

Toku’s shares opened at 26 cents, about 4 per cent above its IPO price of 25 cents. It ended the week at 26 cents.

The company offered 63 million placement shares and two million public offer shares, which gave it a market capitalisation of around $142.6 million.

Toku provides customer experience platforms for businesses, using technology that enables interactions with customers across channels such as voice, chat and e-mail. It saw its revenue more than double from $19.3 million in 2021 to $43.2 million in 2024.

Precious metals shine

Precious metals have benefited from a broader rush into commodities in recent weeks amid renewed tensions between the Trump administration and the US Federal Reserve.

Heightened geopolitical risks – including Mr Trump’s capture of Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro, his renewed threats to annex Greenland, and violent protests in Iran that could lead to a toppling of the Islamic regime there – have also supported safe-haven demand.

Gold rose above US$4,900 an ounce for the first time on Jan 23, while silver peaked above US$100.

Platinum rose 12 per cent through the week to hit around US$2,672 on Jan 23, while palladium edged up 9 per cent to touch US$1,914.

Shares of CNMC Goldmine also rose through the week to close up 4.13 per cent at $1.26.

The Catalist-listed company in August posted record earnings of US$15.8 million (S$20.1 million) for the first half of the 2025 financial year, a 256.1 per cent jump from a year earlier.

Revenue for the six months ended June 2025 surged 78 per cent to US$52.8 million, driven by higher gold production and stronger selling prices.

In comparison, the group earned US$9.8 million for the whole of the 2024 financial year. Its previous earnings record was US$12.2 million in the 2014 financial year.

Other market movers

Maritime financial solutions provider Yangzijiang Maritime is considering a share buyback of up to 10 per cent of its issued share capital.

The mainboard-listed group said on Jan 19 that any repurchases would be carried out at up to 5 per cent above the average closing market price, in accordance with SGX listing rules.

It will convene an extraordinary general meeting to seek shareholders’ approval for the share buyback, the date of which will be announced in due course.

Mr Ren Yuanlin, executive chairman and chief executive of Yangzijiang Maritime, said the company intends to focus on capital allocation, including through share buybacks, following its IPO in 2025.

Spun off from Yangzijiang Financial Holding for its own listing, Yangzijiang Maritime had about $500 million in cash and cash equivalents as at June 30, 2025, while net assets stood at around $2 billion as at the end of June.

Shares of Yangzijiang Maritime closed at 60.5 cents on Jan 23, down 1.63 per cent for the week.

Meanwhile, a subsidiary of mainboard-listed ISDN Holdings has secured $1 million worth of contracts to deploy automated inspection solutions for HDB buildings.

NovaPeak will use its LiveInspect.AI platform to analyse building defects and generate digital inspection reports covering safety, compliance and performance indicators.

Shares of ISDN ended the week flat at 39 cents.

ASTI Holdings announced the resumption of its trading on Jan 22 after a two-year suspension.

It also completed a placement of 128 million new shares at 2.5 cents apiece, raising gross proceeds of about $3.2 million.

The mainboard-listed company said in a bourse filing on Jan 21 that the bulk of the funds will go towards business expansion, and research and development, as well as working capital.

Shares of ASTI closed down 2.78 per cent to end the week at 3.5 cents.

What to look out for next week

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is set to update its core and headline inflation forecasts for 2026 on Jan 29.

Amazon said on Jan 23 that it is planning a second round of job cuts next week as part of its broader goal of trimming about 30,000 corporate workers, according to Bloomberg. The company in October cut about 14,000 white-collar jobs.

Jobs in the company’s Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video and human resources, known as People Experience and Technology, units are slated to be affected, though the full scope was unclear.