“Buy in anticipation, sell on news’’?

Date: September 22, 2025

• The STI fell 1% last week despite the US Fed cutting rates by 25 basis points and signalling possibly two more this year
• Heavy selling of the banks boosted Friday’s volume to S$3.29b, the second-highest one-day total this year
• Commercial vehicle leasing firm Skylink started trading after reverse takeover
• Jardine C&C to buy Indonesian gold miner for US$540m
• Nasdaq-listed AvePoint to be dual-listed on SGX Mainboard
• China EV maker Nio’s shares surged 4.2% after US$1.2b equity sale
• Hongkong Land hits six-year high on MCL divestment

Heavy selling of the banks boosted Friday’s volume to S$3.29b

The Straits Times Index fell about 42 points or 1% to 4,302.71 last week after having risen in the previous four consecutive weeks in anticipation of the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates at its meeting last week.

On Friday, banks were heavily sold off, led by DBS which dropped S$0.76 or 1.48% to S$50.47 on volume of 10.3m. UOB fell S$0.17 to S$34.63 with 6.4m traded and OCBC lost S$0.10 at S$16.46 with 13.3m done.

The total value traded in the three bank stocks was S$962m, about 30% of the entire day’s turnover, which was an unusually high S$3.29b, the highest single-day figure since the S$3.32b traded on 30 May.

No reasons were reported in the press to account for this.

As expected, the US Fed cut rates by 25 basis points, signalled possibly two more this year, but…

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in nine months on Wednesday, signalling concerns about a weakening labour market. The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee voted to lower its target range for the federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 4% to 4.25%, in line with investor expectations.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the decision stemmed from a “shift in the balnce of risks’’ to the central bank’s dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability.

Stocks still ended lower on Wednesday, and that was largely due to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s post-decision press conference. He called the cut a “risk management move’’ sparking concerns that this would not be the start of a long policy easing cycle.

However, Fed officials also see more rate cuts in the remainder of 2025 than they did previously. The latest dot plot of interest-rate expectations shows a median projection of a half percentage point more of rate cuts in 2025, which could result in two further cuts this year.

Policymakers expect to continue lowering rates in 2026, signalling that one quarter-point rate cut is on the agenda.

For the week, the benchmark S&P 500 index added 1.2%, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.2%.

Commercial vehicle leasing firm Skylink started trading after reverse takeover

Commercial vehicle specialist Skylink Holdings commenced trading on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) Catalist board on Wednesday (Sep 17). This marks the second listing of a vehicle company for the bourse operator in 2025, after Vin’s Holdings April debut.

The counter opened at S$0.245 on Wednesday. It later finished the day at S$0.25, with around 10.8 million shares changing hands but finished the week at S$0.41.

The Catalist company listed after a reverse takeover of home-grown commercial vehicle specialist Skylink Apac by former coal trader Sincap Group, which was suspended in 2021.

The acquisition of Skylink Apac came with a S$42.3 million price tag comprising a S$28.3 million base consideration and a S$14 million deferred consideration, contingent on Skylink hitting profit targets for FY2025 and FY2026.

In connection with the reverse takeover, Skylink Holdings raised around S$9.2 million in proceeds. Of this, S$4.2 million was raised through the placement of 21 million shares at S$0.20 apiece.

Sincap listed on Catalist in 2012 and was engaged in alumina and coal trading and the company went into voluntary trading suspension in 2021, as the pandemic disrupted its supply chains and affected its cash flow, making business unsustainable.

It last closed at S$0.005 on May 3 before its suspension the next day.

Jardine C&C to buy Indonesian gold miner for US$540m

Jardine Cycle & Carriage announced that two of its indirect subsidiaries have signed a deal to buy gold mining firm Arafura Surya Alam (ASA) for US$540 million.

Since its incorporation, ASA has been a non-operating company with non-meaningful financial information that a gold mining owns a mining business for the 4,000-hectare Doup mining block in the province of North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The block holds 1.57 million ounces of gold deposits and 3.1 million ounces of gold resources. Its sole asset is the licence for the block, which is a brownfield site to be developed by United Tractors.

On Friday, Jardine C&C’s shares dropped S$0.71 or 2.43% to S$28.48 on volume of 293,200 shares. However, the shares had already risen sharply from S$27.25 on 10 Sep to S$29.28 on Monday last week.

Nasdaq-listed AvePoint to be dual-listed on SGX Mainboard

Nasdaq-listed Cybersecurity company AvePoint launched a public offering for a dual listing on SGX’s mainboard, listing 13.3 million common shares at S$19.50 per share.

Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional two million common shares to cover over-allotments. This will be purchased at the listing price.

The company will not receive any proceeds from the offering, with proceeds of the share sales going to the owners, who consist of individuals, including co-founder Jiang Tianyi.

AvePoint reported a 31% increase in Q2 2025 revenue to US$102 million from US$78 million in Q2 2024. The company also swung into the black in Q2 2025 with earnings of US$2.7 million from a loss of US$12.8 million in Q2 2024.

AvePoint is also listed on the Nasdaq and received investment from 65 Equity Partners’ Anchor Fund back in September 2023. The Anchor Fund’s mandate is to fund and attract companies to list on the SGX.

China EV maker Nio’s shares surge 4.2% after US$1.2b equity sale

Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) maker Nio rose by 4.2% on Friday after the company announced the completion of its US$1.2b share sale in a bid to drive its EV research and development.

The company, which has a secondary listing on SGX, saw its stock soar as much as 6.4% in late morning before paring its gain to close at US$7.50, up US$0.30.

On the Hong Kong Exchange, Nio shares rose 4.5% to HK$58.65.

The Shanghai-based carmaker said on Thursday that a total of 209 million Class-A ordinary shares of the company were on offer.

This consisted of around 161 million American depositary shares (ADS), nearly 21 million Class-A ordinary shares of Nio, and more than 27 million ADS pursuant to the underwriters’ full exercise of their option to purchase additional ADS on Sep 10.

The ADS were sold at a public offering price of US$5.57 each, and HK$43.36 per Class-A ordinary share.

Hongkong Land hits six-year high on MCL divestment

Shares of Hongkong Land surged to a six-year high in intraday trade on the Singapore Exchange on Friday after the real estate group announced a S$738.7m sale of its residential development arm MCL Land.

In morning trades the stock hit US$7.45, with 3.4 million shares changing hands, 12% or US$0.80 above Thursday’s closing price of US$6.65. This was the highest price the stock had reached since March 2019.

The stock later retreated to finish the day at US$6.73, still up by 1.2% or US$0.08, with nearly 15 million shares changing hands.

On Thursday, Hongkong Land said it would sell its Singapore and Malaysia residential property arm MCL Land to Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group. The S$738.7 million cash deal was Sunway’s largest deal to date and pushed its investment in Singapore past S$1.2 billion.

Hongkong Land chief executive Michael Smith told the media on Thursday that the deal is at net asset value. The transaction is expected to be completed in the next one to two months and is part of the company’s capital recycling strategy.