SINGAPORE- Southeast Asia’s top-performing stock market in 2024 is likely to continue its momentum into next year as Singapore unveils measures to revive its stock market, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index comprising 30 biggest companies in the city-state, hit a 17-year high on Tuesday, bringing its year-to-date gains to 17 percent. It has outperformed regional peers, with the MSCI index of ASEAN stocks up 10 percent over the same period.
Analysts are bullish on the overlooked market in the near term, citing central bank’s efforts to boost stock markets and the US election uncertainty favoring defensive positioning.
In August, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it had formed a review group to recommend steps to strengthen the development of the equities market in the island country, which hosts more than $4 trillion of assets under management.
“The combination of seemingly stronger political will and low market expectations drives our conviction that soon-to-be announced initiatives will likely have a meaningfully positive market impact, even if their exact details are still to be fleshed out,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note. Singapore is one of the most preferred markets in Morgan Stanley’s Asia equity strategy, ranked second only to India in its Asia Pacific ex-Japan market allocation.
