Led by the banks, the STI dropped 100 points or 2.2%

Date: October 21, 2025

• DBS’s 4.3% loss helped drag the STI down to 4,328.93
• Despite US bank worries and ongoing US-China trade tensions, Wall St posted gains for the week
• GIC filed lawsuit against Nio
• Soon Hock finished its debut and the week below its IPO price
• SGX launched SDRs on Indonesian blue chips
• The second fund manager under the EQDP, Avanda, launched its fund
• City Developments enjoyed most institutional inflows in 2H 25 as did Advanced Holdings and LHT Holdings

DBS led the banking sector lower and the STI below 4,400

The Straits Times Index last week dropped almost 100 points or about 2.2% to 4,328.93, its first loss after two consecutive weeks of gains that had taken it above the 4,400 mark for the first time ever.

Much of the loss could – not surprisingly – be traced to the three banks, led by DBS, which lost S$2.33 or 4.3% at S$51.52. UOB’s loss over the week was S$1.03 or 2.9% and OCBC’s was S$0.15 or 0.9% at S$16.73.

Daily average volume was S$1.65b versus S$1.41b the previous week.

Despite US bank worries and ongoing US-China trade tensions, Wall St posted gains for the week

It was a topsy-turvy week for Wall Street, though the three major averages managed to post solid gains. Market participants digested ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, a government shutdown that shows no sign of ending, the start of the third quarter earnings season, and a scare over the health of regional banks.

The focus on Tuesday and Wednesday shifted to quarterly results from major banks. On Thursday, regional banks grabbed some of the spotlight. The disclosure of bad loans by Zions Bancorporation and Western Alliance Bancorporation sent ripples throughout the industry.

However, despite a large mid-week wobble, the major indices still managed gain for the week – the S&P gained 1.7%, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.1%.

GIC filed lawsuit against Nio

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has filed a lawsuit against China electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Nio, its current chairman and CEO Li Bin (also known as William Li) and former chief financial officer Feng Wei.

GIC is claiming damages sustained from its purchase of 54,458,148 Nio American depository shares (ADSs) during the period from Aug 11, 2020, to Jul 11, 2022, at prices “that were inflated artificially by defendants’ fraud in reliance on the misrepresentations alleged herein and/or on the integrity of the market for Nio ADSs”.

The suit’s key allegation is that Nio unlawfully recognised immediate revenue of more than US$600 million from a battery asset and leasing joint venture – Weineng Battery Asset (Weineng) – which was actually controlled by Nio and which it failed to disclose.

“Weineng’s chief purpose was to ‘take over’ Nio’s battery subscription business and allow Nio to unlawfully pull forward the revenue from the leased batteries immediately,” it said.

“In fact, every facet of Weineng’s business was designed by Nio to serve Nio, and the entity itself was owned and controlled by Nio, and several of its cronies, to ensure it would only further Nio’s interests.”

The suit was filed in the US District Court, New York Southern District, in August by Kirby McInerney on behalf of GIC, who is demanding a jury trial.

In 2020, Nio formed Weineng as an ostensibly independent joint venture with battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co, and Chinese investment companies Hubei Science Technology Investment Group and Guotai Junan International, with each entity holding 25%.

Weineng bought over Nio’s batteries and its battery leasing and services.

As a result, Nio’s “financials dramatically improved and its revenues skyrocketed”, with revenue more than doubling to 6.6 billion yuan (S$1.2 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Revenue in FY2021 was 26.1 billion yuan, up from 16.3 billion in FY2020. GIC said that Nio recognised more than 4.1 billion yuan – around US$600 million – from Weineng in FY2021 alone.

Nio’s NYSE share price has seen a general decline from a peak of US$61.95 on Jan 22, 2021. Over the five trading days last week, Nio’s shares lost US$0.95 or 12.8% at US$6.47.

Soon Hock finished its debut and the week below its IPO price

Industrial property developer Soon Hock Enterprise debuted on the mainboard on Thursday (Oct 16), and closed S$0.005 or 0.9% below its initial public offering (IPO) price of S$0.58. They slipped another S$0.005 to finish the week at S$0.57.

It opened the day 8.6% above its IPO price at S$0.63 and closed at S$0.575, with around 27.7 million shares traded.

Soon Hock’s debut came a day after the company announced that its IPO was 9.8 times subscribed. The offering was launched on Oct 8 and closed at 12 pm on Tuesday, comprising a total of 21.6 million shares on offer for S$0.58 a share.

This included a Singapore public offer of 2.8 million shares, which was 16.9 times subscribed by retail investors, and an international offering of 18.8 million shares that was 8.7 times subscribed.

SGX launched SDRs on Indonesian blue chips

Local investors can now gain simplified access to three Indonesian blue-chip companies, namely Bank Central Asia, Telkom Indonesia and Indofood CBP, through newly listed Singapore Depository Receipts (SDRs) on SGX.

Issued by Phillip Securities, the Indonesia SDRs give investors beneficial ownership in shares of these three companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The companies are constituents of the benchmark IDX30 Index, which tracks Indonesia’s 30 largest stocks.

SDRs are unsponsored depository receipts that provide holders with a beneficial interest in an underlying security. Through them, investors in Singapore can easily access Indonesian-listed securities using their local brokers, trading in Singapore dollars during SGX market hours.

The second fund manager under the EQDP, Avanda, launched its fund

Local fund manager Avanda Investment Management last week launched its Singapore Discovery Fund, which comes under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s S$5b Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP).

It began operations on Oct 1 and will be overseen by partner and head of equities Richard Chan alongside portfolio manager Sherman Lim.

Chan had previously led the Asia-Pacific equities team at GIC from 2008 to 2015 while Lim was an investment analyst at Newlands Investment Management before joining Avanda in 2022.

Avanda is co-founded by former GIC chief investment officer and former presidential hopeful Ng Kok Song.

The Singapore Discovery Fund is available only to accredited and institutional investors. Avanda is the second fund manager to receive funding under the EQDP, the other two being Fullerton Fund Management and JP Morgan Asset Managemen.

Fullerton launched its own fund for retail, accredited and institutional investors on Oct 6, while JP Morgan has yet to announce the launch of its fund.

Avanda’s fund is built around three core investment themes: Value-Up, Local Champions and Turnaround.

City Developments enjoyed most institutional inflows in 2H as did Advanced Holdings and LHT Holdings

“While City Developments has recorded the largest net institutional buying in absolute terms (S$237M) in Singapore’s stock market in 2H25, Catalist-listed Advanced Holdings has led net institutional buying as a percentage of market cap, with S$6.6M of net buying representing 54% of its current S$12M market cap’’ reported SGX Research in a 16 Oct Update.

This was on the back of Blair Road Capital’s Asia Agri and Renewables Fund acquiring a 16.78% stake in Advanced Holdings from Managing Director Wong Kar King on Aug 26; Advanced Holdings’ core operation is a corn processing facility in Sulawesi, Indonesia, supplying animal feed to the fast-growing regional market.

SGX Research also reported that in 2H25, LHT Holdings has booked S$9.5M net institutional buying representing 19% of its current S$50M market cap after DH Wealth Management’s DH Cornerstone Fund took a deemed 18.45% interest in the manufacturer of wooden pallets, boxes, and crates on Aug 27.