- 4 Investment themes of Singapore stocks in 2026:
- EQDP beneficiaries identified via a systematic screen and bottom-up selection of quality SMID-cap stocks;
- undervalued/underappreciated firms where growth, earnings recovery, or strategic catalysts are not fully reflected in valuations;
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- defensive high-dividend yield stocks outside the REIT universe, offering income stability and downside resilience.
Theme 1: EQDP screen and our bottom-up small-cap picks
- Policy-driven liquidity support under the EQDP is becoming an increasingly important structural tailwind for Singapore small-and mid-cap equities. Initial allocations under the programme have been deployed across selected asset managers with mandates spanning secondary market purchases, IPO participation, and capital raising activity.
- The launch of new Singapore-focused funds under the scheme signals a clear intent to broaden investor participation beyond index heavyweights and channel incremental flows into quality SMID names. With further manager appointments expected in 2Q26, and existing fund managers yet to deploy the allocated funds, the breadth and persistence of EQDP-related inflows should improve liquidity depth and valuation discovery across a wider segment of the market.
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- Together, these initiatives should help narrow valuation dispersion between large caps and the broader market, while encouraging more consistent fund flows into fundamentally sound mid-tier names.
- To capitalise on these structural tailwinds, we have refreshed our screen for high-quality SMID-cap names using the following criteria:
- Exclusion of STI constituents,
- market capitalisation between S$300m and S$3bn,
- minimum free float of 20%,
- average daily trading volume (ADTV) of at least US$0.5m over the past 20 sessions, and
- positive trading momentum, defined as the 20-day ADTV exceeding the 3-month average.
- Refer to the PDF report for the list of stocks. For comparison, we have also included stocks that meet the first four quantitative filters but currently exhibit weaker trading momentum, where the 20-day ADTV has fallen below the 3-month average.
- From the above list of screened stocks that meet the first four quantitative criteria, the following names fall under RHB’s coverage: Marco Polo Marine, Raffles Medical, Delfi, CSE Global, Starhill Global REIT, CDL Hospitality Trusts, AIMS APAC REIT, Keppel Infra Trust, StarHub, ESR-REIT, Food Empire, Frencken, Centurion, UMS and Riverstone.
Our preferred small-cap picks.
- Read more at SGinvestors.io.
