Fund Spotlight: A National Day present? The iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity Fund is up 54% LTM*.

• The iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity Fund returned 54.0% over the past year as of 30 June 2026, comfortably ahead of the STI (36.4%) and the peer average (31.1%).
• The fund has outperformed both benchmark and peers across year-to-date (YTD), one-year and three-year horizons, while posting a milder three-year maximum drawdown (-13.5%) than the STI (-14.4%) and peer average (-13.7%).
• The portfolio is underweight banks and REITs (Financials at 46.8% versus the STI's 58.4%; Real Estate at 2.7% versus 14.3%) and modestly overweight industrials, reflecting a deliberate tilt away from the index's traditional core.
• Five of the fund's top ten holdings, AvePoint, First Resources, Valuetronics, Frencken Group and Sea Limited, have no weight in the STI at all, underscoring the fund's "New Singapore" growth focus beyond the 30 blue chips.
• For investors seeking exposure to Singapore equities beyond the STI's bank-heavy core, the fund offers an actively managed, growth-oriented alternative with exposure in smaller-cap "New Singapore" names, backed by a consistent track record of outperformance across the past three years.

*as of 30 June 2026

Singapore’s equity market has continued to stand out against an uncertain global backdrop so far this year. While geopolitical volatility from the ongoing Middle East conflict to shifting trade policy, has weighed on global markets, the Straits Times Index (STI) has delivered approximately 13.7% total return year-to-date (YTD) as of 30 June 2026, outperforming several regional peers such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.

Figure 1: Singapore outperformed several regional peers in the 1H2026

Singapore banks continue to be supported by optimism ahead of the August earnings season, resilient wealth management income, and safe-haven capital inflows. That said, the STI's record run in 2026 has been driven by more than resilient bank earnings alone. Industrial leaders are translating structural growth drivers, from record order books to expanding recurring income, into sustained earnings growth, reinforcing the investment case for Singapore equities through the remainder of 2026.

Capital markets add a separate, strengthening thread: Securities Daily Average Value (SDAV) continued to strengthen and MAS expanded the Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) from SGD 5 billion to SGD 6.5 billion at Budget 2026, with roughly SGD 2.6 billion still to be deployed in the second half.

Against this backdrop, we highlight the iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity Fund, an actively managed strategy that offers small-to-mid cap (SMID) exposure beyond the STI 30 blue chips.

Related article: Q&A Series: iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity fund leads with a 61.31%* return over the past year

The case for Singapore equities

The investment case rests on multiple pillars.

First, the banking sector continues to anchor index income while its earnings quality improves. DBS, OCBC and UOB all delivered consensus-beating 1Q26 results, with non-interest income — particularly wealth management fees and trading revenue — emerging as the primary growth engine and absorbing the pressure that lower rates continue to exert on net interest margins. That margin pressure is itself approaching a cyclical floor: SORA, having fallen sharply through 2025 to around 1.1%, now appears close to trough as the Fed's rate path shifts toward higher-for-longer. In addition, Singapore's is emerging as a global wealth hub, with safe-haven capital inflows accelerated by Middle East instability and Dubai's diminished appeal drawing tangible volume growth into the private banking franchises of all three banks — DBS alone recorded a record SGD 907 million in wealth management fees in 1Q26.

Second, industrials have become the STI's primary earnings growth driver as consensus earnings growth for 2026 (30.0%) dwarfed other major sectors like the banks (7.1%) and REITs (4.1%). Industrials have overtaken S-REITs to become the STI's second-largest sector weighting, led by ST Engineering and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, both of which offer multi-year earnings visibility through record order books of SGD 34.5 billion and USD 22.3 billion respectively.

Figure 2: Industrials lead STI earnings growth in 2026 and beyond.

Third, beyond these heavyweights, Singapore's integration into the global AI semiconductor supply chain is showing through in the trade data: June 2026 Non-Oil Domestic Exports surged 20.7% year-on-year, driven by the growth in electronic exports tied to accelerating hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending. Some beneficiaries in this trend include SGX-listed names like AEM Holdings, UMS Integration and Frencken.

Fourth, ongoing capital market revitalisation is broadening participation and depth. SGX's SDAV hit SGD 2.1 billion for the full year ended June 2026 (+72.0% YoY) while SMID trading activity strengthened across three consecutive half-year periods. Close to 30 new listings are expected in 2026, and the upcoming SGX-NASDAQ dual-listing bridge could accelerate this further, potentially diversifying the index beyond its historically financials- and real estate-heavy composition toward higher-multiple "new economy" names. Longer-term, the CPF Lifecycle Investment Scheme, announced at Budget 2026 for a 2028 launch, could direct up to SGD 9 billion annually into Singapore equities — a structurally significant new source of domestic liquidity.

Lastly, a supportive macro backdrop reinforces this constructive view. MAS's decision to steepen the S$NEER appreciation path strengthens the SGD's role as a wealth-preservation currency, while core CPI, at a still-moderate 1.6% year-on-year in June 2026, suggests the managed appreciation framework remains well placed to buffer against imported inflation.

Within this backdrop, the iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity A SGD is overweight the industrials sector and holds SMID exposure, which allows investors to participate in the country's growth while still benefiting from the index's core income anchor. The fund retains banks as its largest holding, anchored by DBS and OCBC, but redirects the incremental weight the index concentrates in banks and REITs toward industrials and SMID names better positioned to capture Singapore's broadening earnings growth.

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

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

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

Portfolio construction: a small-cap, “New Singapore” growth tilt

The iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity A SGD is managed by Lai Yeu Huan and Kenneth Tang, senior portfolio managers on Amova Asset Management's Asian Equity team (the firm rebranded from Nikko Asset Management in September 2025). Both managers have run the fund since 4 July 2022.

The fund is growth-oriented and benchmarked against the STI, but the managers describe the portfolio as benchmark-aware rather than benchmark-driven: given its bias toward smaller-cap companies and the “New Singapore” investment theme, benchmark constituents are not a primary consideration in stock selection, and holdings can differ meaningfully from the index. The fund is limited to no more than 10% in any single stock for off-benchmark names.

Two threads run through the portfolio.

• First, a preference for smaller-cap companies offering compelling value, strong asset backing and potential catalysts such as corporate restructuring or value-realisation initiatives — a segment the managers expect to benefit from stronger fund flows under the Monetary Authority of Singapore's EQDP.
• Second, an allocation to companies aligned with the “New Singapore” narrative: businesses representing the future of Singapore's economy across renewable energy and biofuels, technology, data infrastructure, healthcare and logistics.

Sector allocation: underweight banks and REITs

As at 30 June 2026, Financials remained the fund's largest sector exposure at 46.8% — but this is a meaningful underweight versus the index's 58.4%, an 11.6 percentage point (pp) gap that reflects the managers' selectivity within, and underweight to, the sector's largest bank constituents. Industrials, the fund's second-largest sector at 16.9%, is a modest overweight versus the index's 15.5% (+1.4pp), consistent with the managers' preference for the sector's structural growth prospects.

The more striking divergence is in Real Estate, where the fund holds just 2.7% versus the index's 14.3% (-11.6pp), reflecting a deliberate underweight to the benchmark's REIT-heavy exposure. This reflects the managers' cautious stance on S-REITs, which may face slower earnings growth in a higher for longer rates environment. Communications is similarly underweight (1.1% vs. 6.8%, -5.7pp), given minimal exposure to Singtel, which anchors the index's communications weighting.

Conversely, the fund carries several sector exposures with negligible or no representation in the index, including Technology (8.9%), Consumer Staples (6.4%), Consumer Discretionary (2.8%), Energy (2.3%) and Materials (1.2%) — positions which may reflect the fund's tilt toward smaller, non-index “New Singapore” names.

Looking ahead, the managers remain positioned around the “New Singapore” narrative, continuing to favour SMID stocks that stand to benefit from stronger fund flows under the EQDP. The fund avoids direct fuel-cost exposure, including in its transport holdings, while positioning instead in energy, renewable energy and biofuels names that benefit from elevated energy prices.

Figure 3: Sectoral breakdown vs. benchmark (as of 30 June 2026)

Top holdings: Underweight the banks, alongside five non-STI names

The fund's top ten holdings account for 60.6% of the portfolio as at 30 June 2026. DBS (21.2%) and OCBC (16.4%) remain the two largest positions, both held at an underweight to their index weights of 27.6% and 16.7% respectively. UOB is a far smaller position at just 2.0%, versus a 10.0% index weight, among the fund's largest underweights. SGX (6.0% vs. 4.1%) and Sembcorp (2.3% vs. 1.2%) are both modest overweights. The remaining names, AvePoint, First Resources, Valuetronics Holdings, Frencken Group and Sea Limited, carry no weight in the index at all, underscoring the fund's tilt toward smaller, non-benchmark constituents.

Table 1: Top ten holdings of the fund

Company	Fund	Index
DBS	21.2%	27.6%
OCBC	16.4%	16.7%
SGX	6.0%	4.1%
AvePoint	3.1%	0.0%*
First Resources	3.0%	0.0%*
Valuetronics	2.6%	0.0%*
Sembcorp	2.3%	1.2%
Frencken	2.0%	0.0%*
Sea Limited	2.0%	0.0%*
UOB	2.0%	10.0%
Total	60.6%	-
*Not represented in the STI. Source: Fund Factsheet, Bloomberg Finance L.P. Data as of 30 June 2026.

Performance: ahead of both benchmark and peers, with a milder drawdown

Since 2023, the fund has outperformed against both the STI and the peer average on a cumulative basis. Year to date as of 30 June 2026, the fund returned 22.9%, comfortably ahead of the STI (13.7%) and the peer average (10.5%). The gap widens further over one year, where the fund's 54.0% return outpaces the STI's 36.4% and the peer average's 31.1%. Over three years on an annualised basis, the fund returned 29.5%, ahead of the STI's 23.3% and the peer average's 22.2%.

Figure 4: Performance comparison, in SGD terms (as of 30 June 2026)

The fund has also led on a calendar-year basis for the recent two years. It returned 37.7% in 2025, comfortably ahead of both the STI and the peer average, which were tied at 28.8%, and 26.3% in 2024, versus 23.5% for the STI and 25.8% for the peer average. It was a laggard in 2023, returning 3.3% against the STI's 4.7% and the peer average's 3.7%.

Figure 5: Calendar year performance comparison, in SGD terms

Within 2025, performance was driven predominantly by the fund's overweight in Industrials and Information Technology, anchored by individual winners including ST Engineering, Addvalue Technologies and Centurion Corporation. For 2024, performance was driven by the fund’s overweight in Industrials and Real Estate. On the other hand, the underperformance for 2023 was due to the fund’s holdings in Financials and Industrials.

Risk measures

The fund's downside profile compares favourably despite its small-cap exposure. Over the three years to 30 June 2026, the fund's maximum drawdown was -13.5%, milder than both the STI (-14.4%) and the peer average (-13.7%) — a sign that the fund's stock selection has provided some cushion during periods of market weakness, even though a bias toward smaller, less liquid names might typically be expected to add volatility rather than dampen it.

Figure 6: 3Y maximum drawdown (as of 30 June 2026)

Conclusion

For investors seeking exposure to Singapore equities beyond the STI's bank-heavy core, the iFAST-Amova Singapore Equity A SGD offers an actively managed, growth-oriented alternative with a distinct tilt toward smaller-cap “New Singapore” names. This has translated into outperformance against both benchmark and peers across YTD, one-year and three-year horizons, alongside a milder drawdown.

Note: For investors seeking the distributing share class, Class D is estimated to be available by the end of September.

Declaration: 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.

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.