The first actively managed iEdge Singapore Next 50 ETF is here!

• The CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF (SGX: Q50) opens its Initial Offer Period on 6 August 2026 and lists on 3 September 2026, becoming the first ETF to use the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index as a reference benchmark.
• It is actively managed, not a passive tracker: a proprietary six-factor quantitative model and a portfolio optimiser select and built the portfolio with 30 to 50 stocks, with at least 80% drawn from the Next 50 Index and up to 20% from the broader MSCI Singapore IMI universe.
• For investors who have avoided Singapore's SMID-cap names over fears of single-stock illiquidity, the ETF wrapper offers a more liquid way to access the segment.
• Investors holding a passive Singapore tracker already have significant bank exposure but limited access to the Next 50's mid-cap companies, a gap that this new ETF is designed to fill.
• Overall, this ETF marks the first of its kind within the Singapore equity market and could appeal to investors who are looking to diversify away from the STI blue-chip companies.

Singapore's push to revitalise its equity market has, over the past eighteen months, repeatedly circled back to one problem: the SGX's small to mid-cap names have been under-owned and under-researched relative to their scale. The iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index was introduced to give that segment a defined identity, tracking the 50 largest Mainboard companies after the STI's top 30.

Despite the index's launch, no listed product has used it as a reference point until now. That gap closes with the CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF (SGX: Q50), managed by CGS International Securities Singapore Pte. Ltd. with Fullgoal Asset Management (HK) Limited as investment advisor. Its arrival gives investors a direct route into a part of the Singapore market that has so far only been accessible by assembling individual stock positions by hand or through unit trusts.

Related article: Singapore Outlook 2H26: Yield, growth and revitalisation in one market

Related article: Industrials cement their role as the STI's earnings growth engine

Related article: ETF Insights: SGX’s ETF market strengthens on new listings and policy support (November 2025)

Why invest in Singapore's Next 50?

What does look genuinely specific to the SMID segment is participation. Singapore's 240 SMID stocks (market capitalisations of SGD 100 million to SGD 10 billion) generated a combined SGD 696 million in average daily turnover (ADT) in 1H26, alongside average total returns of 13%. For SMIDs already listed prior to the past 12 months, ADT rose from SGD 362 million in 1H25 to SGD 459 million in 2H25 and SGD 663 million in 1H26, an 83% increase over the year that has outpaced the segment's own share price gains — evidence of genuinely deeper participation rather than turnover simply tracking price.

Of the SGD 6.5 billion Equity Market Development Programme, roughly SGD 2.6 billion remained available for deployment in 2H26 as of early June 2026, meaning the institutional capital behind this move is not yet exhausted and could continue to support the segment through the rest of the year.

The Next 50’s sector composition is also structurally different from the STI. While real estate remains the largest sector, it has greater representation in technology, consumer staples and healthcare, providing investors with broader diversification and exposure to sectors that are underrepresented in the STI.

Figure 1: Sectoral breakdown of the benchmark vs STI

Related article: Singapore’s NODX continues to expand, further solidifying its economic resilience

Related article: Singapore’s semiconductor stocks: Riding the AI-driven upcycle

The listing of the CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF (SGX: Q50) could stand to benefit from Singapore's broader market development push. Enhancements to the GEMS listing grant specifically target new ETF and depositary receipt listings, and the arrival of Q50 is a visible outcome of that push — closing a product gap that had persisted since the Next 50 Index's own launch.

Introducing the CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF (SGX: Q50)

Investment objectives and strategy

The CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF (SGX: Q50) is an actively managed ETF that uses the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index as its reference benchmark that it aims to outperform.

The process runs in three stages. First, a universe of around 80–100 stocks from the MSCI Singapore IMI and Next 50 Index is scored across six factors: valuation, growth, earnings surprise, analyst sentiment, earnings quality and market factors (i.e. turnover and liquidity).

A portfolio optimiser then constructs the portfolio within a defined risk budget, including a maximum 10% weight per stock (typically 3–4%), a target ex-ante tracking error of 4% (working range: 3–6%), and active weight limits of ±8% per stock and ±5% per industry relative to the benchmark. The portfolio of 30 to 50 holdings is rebalanced monthly, with one-way turnover typically capped at around 20% and trading in any individual stock limited to no more than 10% of its average daily trading volume.

At least 80% of the portfolio would be made up of names from the benchmark while the remaining would be off-benchmark names from the MSCI Singapore IMI Index. For the off-benchmark sleeve, it would be typically be expressed through 5 to 8 high-conviction names drawn from the broader MSCI Singapore IMI universe, rather than spread thinly across the full 20% allocation.

Figure 2: Overview of the ETF’s strategy

Source: CGS-Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF.

Table 1: CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF — key facts

Attribute	Detail
SGX Stock Code	Q50 (SGD Share Class)
Product Type	Actively Managed ETF, Excluded Investment Product (EIP)
Underlying Reference Asset	iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index
Manager	CGS International Securities Singapore Pte. Ltd.
Investment Advisor	Fullgoal Asset Management (HK) Limited
Custodian	BNP Paribas Trust Services Singapore Limited
Designated Market Maker	North Point Global Pte. Ltd.
Initial Offer Period	6 Aug 2026 – 25 Aug 2026
SGX Listing Date	3 Sep 2026
Target Holdings	Approximately 30 to 50 stocks; maximum 10% per single stock
Management Fee	0.65% per annum of Sub-Fund Assets
Total Expense Ratio	Capped at 1.50% per annum
Distribution Policy	Semi-annual (targeted around June and December), at the Company's discretion
Board Lot / IOP Unit Price	1 Share; SGD 1.00 per unit, minimum order 1,000 units
Base and Trading Currency	SGD
Source: CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF Product Highlights Sheet, dated 30 Jul 2026; iFAST Compilations.

Top holdings

Based on an illustrative model portfolio (as of 17 July 2026), every Next 50 name in the top 15 is overweight versus the index, with the exception of Haw Par Corporation, the only holding retained below its benchmark weight. The largest active overweights are iFAST Corporation (+5.32pp), Keppel Infrastructure Trust (+4.53pp), Parkway Life REIT (+4.09pp) and Starhill Global REIT (+2.90pp).

Table 2: Illustrative model portfolio — top 15 holdings (~77% of portfolio)

Stock	Ticker	Fund’s weight	Benchmark’s weight	Active weight	Universe
Keppel Infrastructure Trust	A7RU	9.15%	4.62%	+4.53pp	Next 50
iFAST Corporation	AIY	8.64%	3.32%	+5.32pp	Next 50
Keppel REIT	K71U	8.11%	5.04%	+3.07pp	Next 50
Parkway Life REIT	C2PU	7.19%	3.10%	+4.09pp	Next 50
Sheng Siong Group	OV8	6.09%	3.85%	+2.24pp	Next 50
Keppel Ltd	BN4	5.65%	-	-	MSCI Singapore IMI
CapitaLand Ascott Trust	HMN	5.07%	4.20%	+0.87pp	Next 50
Starhill Global REIT	P40U	4.27%	1.37%	+2.90pp	Next 50
DBS Group	D05	4.01%	-	-	MSCI Singapore IMI
CapitaLand India Trust	CY6U	4.00%	1.89%	+2.11pp	Next 50
CDL Hospitality Trusts	J85	3.34%	1.14%	+2.20pp	Next 50
StarHub	CC3	3.14%	1.02%	+2.12pp	Next 50
Venture Corp	V03	3.01%	-	-	MSCI Singapore IMI
First Resources	EB5	2.83%	1.84%	+0.99pp	Next 50
Haw Par Corporation	H02	2.62%	3.72%	-1.10pp	Next 50
Note: the model portfolio is dated 17 Jul 2026; benchmark weights are as of 30 Jun 2026 — the two are not from the same date, so “active weight” below is indicative rather than a precise same-day comparison. Source: CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF marketing deck, illustrative model portfolio as of 17 Jul 2026. Holdings are illustrative; actual holdings at launch may differ following final portfolio construction. Benchmark weights are as of 30 Jun 2026.

Three positions sit entirely outside the Next 50 benchmark via the 20% off-benchmark sleeve: Keppel Ltd, DBS Group and Venture Corp, together worth 12.67% of the portfolio.

Notably, AEM Holdings, the Next 50 Index's single largest constituent at 5.18%, does not appear anywhere in the top 15.

The presence of DBS Group is also worth flagging: the investment case for the Next 50 segment has been built partly on not needing to hold the three banks that dominate the STI, yet the illustrative portfolio holds DBS at a 4.01% weight through the off-benchmark sleeve. This does not undermine the broader diversification argument, the core 80% remains Next 50.

Sectoral breakdown

The sectoral breakdown tells a consistent story: the portfolio's largest active bet is a substantial overweight to Financials, at 15.1% versus the index's 5.6% — a roughly 9.5 percentage point overweight, partly explained by both positions in both DBS and iFAST Corporation. Materials & Energy (+5.6pp) and Industrials (+2.9pp) are also overweight.

On the other side, Technology is the largest underweight, at 3.0% versus the index's 10.6% (−7.6pp), which lines up with AEM's absence from the top holdings. For context, AEM alone would account for more than half of that gap at the index level. Healthcare (−5.6pp) and Telecommunications (−2.9pp) are also underweight, while Real Estate, despite still being the single largest sector in the portfolio at 37.2%, is modestly underweight relative to the index's 39.4%.

Figure 3: Sectoral breakdown of the model portfolio vs the benchmark

Why Q50 offers exposure a Singapore benchmark tracker can't

As Q50 is the first listed vehicle to reference the Next 50 Index, there is not yet a directly comparable ETF. The more useful comparison is between the Next 50 Index itself and the broader Singapore market, represented here by the MSCI Singapore IMI and the Straits Times Index, which most passive Singapore equity products closely resemble in sector composition.

Table 3: iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index versus other common Singapore equity market benchmarks

Metric	iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index	MSCI Singapore IMI	Straits Times Index
Financials Weight	5.6%	50.3%	58.3%
Real Estate Weight	39.4%	14.0%	14.3%
Number of Constituents	50	74	30
Dividend Yield	4.22%	3.48%	4.71%
Source: SGX Indices, MSCI, iFAST Compilations. iEdge data as of 30 Jun 2026; MSCI data as of 30 Jun 2026.

The practical takeaway is that investors already holding a passive Singapore tracker, whether an STI ETF or a broader MSCI Singapore benchmarked fund, are likely to have significant exposure to the banks, but relatively limited exposure to the mid-cap companies that make up the Next 50 Index. This is the gap that Q50 is designed to fill.

Conclusion

CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF (SGX: Q50) is the first ETF-wrapped route into Singapore’s SMID-cap opportunity set, trading intraday on the SGX rather than through fund subscription, which may suit investors who prefer the liquidity and access of an ETF structure. It is best suited as a satellite allocation for investors comfortable with SMID volatility and the fund's REIT-heavy starting universe, rather than as a core Singapore holding on its own.

Declaration:

For specific disclosure, at the time of publication of this report, IFPL (via its connected and associated entities) and the analyst who produced this report hold a NIL position in the abovementioned securities. 

This research report was prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. iFAST Financial Pte Ltd does not rely exclusively on AI for content generation; the content of this report — including all investment theses, ratings, price targets and conclusions — has been independently reviewed and verified by the research analyst(s) to ensure accuracy and professional integrity.