Israel-Iran ceasefire lifted Wall St to all-time high; STI up 2.1%

Date: June 30, 2025

• Middle East ceasefire, China trade deal pushed US stocks to all-time highs
• Banks, Singtel & SGX helped STI rise 2.1% to 3,966.2
• Chance of US rate cut in July now about 19%
• OCBC said ‘no intention’ to convert Great Eastern Class C non-voting shares to ordinary shares in five years
• Partial offer for 10% of Cordlife lapsed
• Singapore’s long-term wealth creation set to boost local stocks: Morgan Stanley
• SIA Engineering, UOL, Sheng Siong, Raffles Medical & DFI top mid-cap performers: SGX Research
• NTT confirmed earlier intention to list data centre REIT on SGX by lodging prospectus

 

Middle East ceasefire pushed stocks higher

News of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran lifted stocks last week, pushing Wall Street to all-time highs. Here, the Straits Times Index rose sharply on Tuesday to Friday following the news, eventually finishing the week a net 83 points or 2.1% higher at 3,966.20.

Average daily volume was S$1.4b, an improvement on the previous week’s S$1.2b. Among index stocks that were in play were the banks, Singtel and SGX.

How Wall Street fared – stocks at all-time highs, 19% chance of rate cut in July

US stocks were mostly firm throughout the week, reacting to developments in the Middle East instead of US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s Congressional testimony, in which he reiterated that many forecasters believe tariffs will cause inflation to spike, and the central bank is in a good position to take a wait-and-see approach.

After hovering near record levels on Thursday, the final push for stocks came on Friday following the finalization of a trade agreement between the U.S. and China under which tariff rates will come down, and rare earth exports will be expedited.

As of Friday, traders placed a 19% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at the next Open Markets Committee meeting, scheduled for 30 July.

For the week, the For the week, the S&P 500 climbed +3.4% to a new all-time high of 6,173.07, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged +4.3% to a record high of 20,273.46 and the blue-chip Dow added +3.8% at 43,819.27.

OCBC says ‘no intention’ to convert Great Eastern Class C non-voting shares to ordinary shares in five years

OCBC said it has “no intention” to convert its Class C non-voting shares in Great Eastern to ordinary shares when they come up for conversion in five years.

In a statement on Monday (Jun 23), the lender said it does not intend to convert the Class C shares “on or after the fifth anniversary of the first issuance” as it would result in Great Eastern losing its free float again.

“OCBC is electing for the Class C non-voting shares at Great Eastern’s request to help Great Eastern to meet the free-float requirement and the resumption of trading,” it said.

The statement was made in response to media reports about how OCBC can still propose the privatisation and delisting of Great Eastern by converting these non-voting shares to ordinary, voting shares.

Early in June, OCBC made a conditional exit offer at S$30.15 per share for the 6.28% stake in Great Eastern it does not own, in a bid to delist the insurer amid the latter’s trading suspension.

If the delisting resolution fails at the insurer’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Jul 8, Great Eastern will propose a resolution to satisfy the free-float requirement.

In the Jun 23 statement, OCBC affirmed that delisting Great Eastern is its long-term strategic goal, and added that the lender is “satisfied with its 93.72% economic interests of Great Eastern since October 2024”, regardless of the outcome of the upcoming EGM.

“OCBC has already stated in its announcement on Jun 6 that its exit offer is final, and it has no intention to launch another offer in the foreseeable future,” the lender said.

Partial offer for 10% of Cordlife lapsed

A partial offer for a 10% stake in Cordlife Group has lapsed, with the offerer, a subsidiary of Thai-listed Medeze Group, having secured less than a 10th of the shares it needed to.

As at the close of the offer at 5.30 pm on Wednesday (Jun 25), the total number of shares owned, controlled or agreed to be acquired by Medeze Treasury amounted to 2.4 million, representing a 0.95% stake.

Medeze Treasury would have needed 25.6 million shares for the offer to succeed.

Through the partial offer, Medeze Group had aimed for entry into the Singapore market. The company had hoped to provide Cordlife’s customers with services such as the analysis and storage of the natural killer cell, which is known for its ability to kill cancer cells.

However, the offer was deemed unfair and unreasonable by an independent financial adviser, which recommended that shareholders reject it.

Singapore’s long-term wealth creation set to boost local stocks: Morgan Stanley

As Singapore reaches its 60th birthday, investment bank Morgan Stanley believes the city-state is “primed for wealth creation”, which could unlock real gains for investors.

Tapping its global leadership as a data, energy, finance and transport hub, combined with rapid adoption of emerging technologies, Singapore is set to build upon its extraordinary economic success, the bank said in a report released on June 24.

“In our view, Singapore needs to pursue broad-scale wealth creation to keep its ageing population both happy and healthy – and, in doing so, could unlock real gains for investors,” Morgan Stanley added.

It forecast a five-year gross domestic product (GDP) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3% – the highest among developed economies – and expects household net assets to nearly double to US$4 trillion (S$5.1 trillion) by 2030.

The bank also predicts that stock market capitalisation will double by 2030.

Singapore’s equity market – long seen by global investors as “small, safe and boring” – is on the cusp of a transformation, said Morgan Stanley.

With a limited supply of new economy listings and low trading liquidity, the market has often been overlooked, despite its solid fundamentals and stable institutional base.

But this perception could be about to shift dramatically, said the bank. In 2025, Singapore channelled billions in national reserves and third-party funds into the domestic market, and explored a “value-up” programme modelled after successful initiatives in Japan and South Korea.

“We believe this could ignite significant interest and confidence in the Singapore stock market globally and potentially underpin a multiyear re-rating in valuation multiples,” it added.

SIA Engineering, UOL, Sheng Siong, Raffles Medical & DFI top mid-cap performers: SGX Research

SIA Engineering, UOL, Sheng Siong, Raffles Medical and DFI Retail Group have led the 32 constituents of the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index in 1H25, which has generated a marginal 1.5% decline in total return over the period, lagging the FTSE Asia Pacific Mid Cap Index at 4.6%.

SIA Engineering, Raffles Medical and Sheng Siong have seen the biggest increases in trading turnover for the period. Sheng Siong also maintains the highest ROE of the all the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index constituents at 26.7%.

The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index maintains a combined market capitalisation of S$125 billion, with S$340 million of Average Daily Turnover (ADT) in the 2025 year to June 25.

The same 32 constituents generated S$347 million of ADT in 2024. During the 2025 year to June 25, the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index also booked net institutional outflow of S$973 million, led by net outflow from the S-REIT Sector, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) and SATS.

NTT confirmed earlier intention to list data centre REIT on SGX

Japanese telco Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) on Friday confirmed earlier reports that it would list a data centre REIT on SGX by lodging an initial public offer prospectus in which it the decision to list follows the belief that there is “significant growth” in the global data centre market, “with further headroom for expansion”.

The offer price for the Reit will be US$1 per unit. The Reit is sponsored by NTT Ltd, part of the NTT Group. NTT has a market capitalisation of around US$95 billion as at Friday (Jun 27).

The portfolio will comprise six of NTT’s data-centre assets, indicated to be transferred to the S-REIT – called NTT DC Reit – for about US$1.6 billion.

Four of the data centres are located in the United States, with three in California and one in Virginia. The fifth data centre is in Vienna, Austria, while the sixth is in Singapore. All the properties are freehold except for the Singapore asset, which has an initial lease term until 2040.