A weak Wall Street led the STI to dip below 4,300

Date: September 29, 2025

• The STI fell 37 points or 0.9% to 4,265.98 due to lack of direction from Wall St
• All US indices weakened for the week despite Friday’s rebound
• Singtel in focus following latest Optus network failure, fined A$100m for mis-selling
• Centurion Accomodation REIT posted strong debut
• Interest in new iEdge Singapore Next 50 stocks growing: SGX Research
• Wilmar found guilty of corruption by Indonesia’s Supreme Court
• Analysts downgrade Wilmar; CEO bought S$2.7m shares
• Singapore’s factory output slumped 7.8% in Aug

Wall St uncertainty weighed on sentiment here

A generally soft week on Wall Street – at least for the first four days – led to the Straits Times Index falling for four of the five trading sessions last week, resulting in a net loss of 37 points or 0.9% at 4,265.98.

Average daily volume traded amounted to S$1.46b, roughly in line with recent averages.

All US indices weakened for the week despite Friday’s rebound

Clouding rate cut expectations in the US was data showing a surprisingly strong economy and sticky inflation.

The final estimate of US Q2 GDP growth was revised up to an annual rate of 3.8% from 3.3%, primarily due to increased consumer spending.

Meanwhile, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge—the core personal consumption expenditures price index—increased to 2.9% Y/Y in August, in line with estimates but still well above the central bank’s 2% target.

For the week, the benchmark S&P 500 index slipped 0.3%, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.7%.

Centurion Accomodation REIT posted strong debut

Centurion Accommodation REIT enjoyed a strong debut on SGX, closing S$0.08 or 9.1% above its S$0.88 offer price on Thursday on volume of 82.1m units.

Its initial public offer of 262.2m units had been 16.6 times subscribed.

The offer comprised an international placement tranche of 249 million units for investors outside of the US, and 13.2 million units for the public in Singapore, subject to an over-allotment option of up to 51.1 million units.

The placement tranche was oversubscribed by around 16 times, and the Singapore public offer, by about 30.9 times.

Art Karoonyavanich, the global head of Equity Capital Markets at DBS was quoted by The Business Times saying: “The high take-up by institutional and retail investors for this IPO signals a return of optimism to Singapore’s equity market. It also suggests that recent measures to rejuvenate the stock market are starting to bear fruit’’.

He added that he expects this momentum to carry through into 2026, “especially amid a more accommodative interest rate environment, in which issuers will find it conducive to raise capital”.

Tony Bin, chief executive of the manager, said: “The listing of Centurion Accommodation Reit, the first pure-play purpose-built living accommodation Reit on SGX, is aligned with our long-term growth strategy and growing investor interest.”

Singtel in focus following latest Optus network failure, A$100m fine for mis-selling

Singtel faces a fresh crisis at its Australian division Optus after the government started an investigation into an emergency call outage that resulted in multiple deaths.

A network failure on 18 Sep followed an Australia-wide outage at Optus in November 2023 that affected millions of customers – including some who were unable to make emergency calls. That blunder cost the job of Optus’ then-boss, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.

The latest incident at Australia’s second-biggest phone company, so soon after the last, now threatens the position of Rosmarin’s successor as chief executive officer, Stephen Rue.

And there is potentially worse fallout to come. At a press conference on 22 Sep Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said she will consider any required regulatory or legislative changes once the probe into Optus’ botched network upgrade is complete.

A few days later, Optus was served a A$100 million (S$85.1 million) fine by the country’s federal court on 24 Sep for selling phones and contracts to disadvantaged consumers.

Justice Patrick O’Sullivan said in his ruling that the company’s conduct was “clearly unconscionable and can only be described as appalling. It is, by any measure, extremely serious.”

Optus admitted to selling phones and contracts to more than 400 disadvantaged consumers in 16 of its stores between August 2019 and July 2023.

Australian Consumer and Competition Commission said in a statement: “In many instances, the consumers did not want or need, could not use or could not afford what they were sold and, in some cases, consumers were pursued for debts resulting from these sales’’.

Over the week, Singtel’s shares fell S$0.15 or 3.4% to S$4.26.

Interest in new iEdge Singapore Next 50 stocks growing: SGX Research

In a Market Update SGX Research reported that 9 in 10 constituents of the newly-constructed iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index recorded higher average daily trading turnover in 3Q25 compared to 1H25.

“Stocks that have seen the most growth include Banyan Tree Holdings, PropNex, China Aviation Oil Singapore Corp, China Sunsine Chemical Holdings and COSCO SHIPPING International Singapore’’.

“Nine in 10 constituents of the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index have also seen valuations as gauged through price-to-book (P/B) ratios edge higher, led by PropNex, Yangzijiang Financial Holding, Wee Hur Holdings, Hong Leong Asia and Aztech Global. The median P/B of the constituents has increased from 0.92x as of June 30 to 1.12x as of Sep 24’’.

The iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index was unveiled at the start of last week and complements Singapore’s established benchmarks. It is the first of the iEdge indices designed to promote market development and investor engagement.

Its key distinction lies in excluding the 30 most actively traded stocks by market capitalisation, allowing it to operate alongside the Straits Times Index (STI) without overlap or dilution of the STI’s long established identity.

The constituents of the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index maintain a combined market capitalisation of S$87 billion, with average daily turnover (ADT) of S$160 million in the 2025 year to Sep 24.

Wilmar found guilty of corruption by Indonesia’s Supreme Court; analysts downgrade the stock

Global palm oil company Wilmar International has been found guilty of corruption after Indonesia’s Supreme Court overturned the company’s previous acquittal in a graft case involving cooking oil export permits during the 2021-2022 shortage crisis.

Wilmar company said on Thursday that the Supreme Court overturned the previous acquittals of the group and two Indonesian palm oil companies – Permata Hijau and Musim Mas.

The companies were accused of illegally profiting from the evasion of state-imposed export controls on cooking oil and palm oil.

The Indonesian Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) has sought 11.8 trillion rupiah (S$907 million) in compensation from Wilmar and a billion rupiah fine.

In a statement, the group said: “While Wilmar respects the decision of the Indonesian Supreme Court, it maintains that the actions taken by the Wilmar Respondents, during the period of a shortage of cooking oil in the Indonesian market, were done in compliance with prevailing regulations and in good faith.”

Over the course of the week, Wilmar’s shares fell S$0.05 or 1.7% to S$2.85. In the year to date, the counter is down 8.1%. In contrast, the benchmark Straits Times Index is up 12.6% so far in 2025.

 Analysts downgrade Wilmar; CEO bought S$2.7m shares

While details of the grounds of judgement and final award amount have not been released, it is likely that Wilmar will lose the 11.9 trillion rupiah security deposit (then valued at around S$928m) that it had to post – and more.

“We note that the full written judgement, including final penalty details, has not yet been released and, as such, there may be potential for additional financial liability,” said RHB’s research house in a flash note on Friday.

RHB analysts downgraded Wilmar to a “sell” recommendation, and cut its target price by 9.1% to S$2.50. Its target price on the mainboard counter at the start of the year was S$3.

DBS analyst William Simadiputra downgraded Wilmar to “hold” earlier this month with a reduced target price of S$3, from S$3.80 previously.

While Wilmar broadens its downstream operations and builds a business platform with stronger and more stable margins, he believes the legal overhang clouds its strong fundamentals.

Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and chief executive of the company, scooped up S$2.7 million worth of shares at S$2.838 per share through entities linked to him on Friday. The acquisition thus means that Kuok now holds more than 896 million shares, or a 14.4% stake in Wilmar.

Singapore’s factory output slumped 7.8% in Aug

Factory output plunged 7.8% on year in August, far steeper than economists’ forecast of a 1.9% fall, and marking a reversal from July’s upward-revised 7.7% growth figure.

The latest statistic, released by the Economic Development Board on Friday ended a 13-month streak of expansion.

DBS senior economist Chua Han Teng said the drop – the sharpest since March last year – was due partly to adverse base effects, as factory output had surged 22.8% in August 2024, its fastest pace that year.

Economists expect Singapore’s factory performance to be poor for the rest of 2025. RHB’s group chief economist Barnabas Gan said trade developments are “likely to keep weighing on external demand, as tariffs take effect and front-loading fades”.