Maybank Securities’ Thilan Wickramasinghe was the most optimistic with a “buy” call and a higher target price of $25.25, from $20.37 previously. “SGX’s May equity market turnover shows an accelerating trend towards a higher baseline velocity. This should drive structurally higher SDAV in the medium term,” he writes in his June 12 report.
Mainboard velocity stood at 56%, which shows that large-cap institutional participation remains strong. Velocity in the Catalist market was 73%, up from 21% reported just a year ago.
“This indicates higher retail participation, given the board’s smaller-cap listings,” says Wickramasinghe. “While there is no breakdown of institutional versus retail shareholders in the Mainboard, we extrapolate that retail liquidity is shifting up to a higher base.”
Safe haven status
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The analyst adds that flows driven by Singapore’s status as a safe haven, market reforms, corporate restructuring and value unlocking are a “self-reinforcing trifecta” that should further drive market average daily value (ADV) across the market. Given this, Wickramasinghe has upgraded his FY2026–FY2028 ADV estimates by 10%–18% to over $2 billion.
With elevated global volatility such as the recent re-escalation between the US and Iran, Wickramasinghe believes SGX’s multi-asset platform is a “structural beneficiary”. The continued market momentum, which is driving SGX’s 2HFY2026 results — slated to be released on Aug 6 — may prompt consensus upgrades, he adds.
A key risk, he notes, is that recent IPOs are trading below their opening prices, which may affect future IPO momentum and liquidity availability. This, he adds, may also seep through to secondary market velocity. Of the total IPOs launched in 2025 and 2026, 66% are trading below their opening price year to date.
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UOB Kay Hian’s Roy Chen has maintained a “hold” call, but raised the target price to $21.70 from $19.16 previously, as SGX’s cumulative trading statistics for the past 11 months ended May beat expectations.
CChen expects trading activity to sustain through the rest of FY2026 and FY2027, with initiatives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and SGX continuing to drive investor participation and market liquidity.
For its FY2026 results, Chen expects SGX’s core earnings to grow by 21.2% y-o-y to $739 million. Headline net profit is expected to grow by 11.8% y-o-y to $724 million, he says. Core earnings would be driven by 13.5% y-o-y top-line growth and a 2.5 percentage-point y-o-y expansion in the operating margin, driven by favourable operating leverage.
Chen’s new target price is based on an FY2028 P/E estimate of 27.1 times, pegged to 2 standard deviations (s.d.) above SGX’s historical mean P/E of 22.3 times.
Upbeat earnings outlook
“The +2 s.d. peg reflects SGX’s upbeat earnings growth outlook and its unique valuation proposition as a beneficiary of both Singapore’s equity market development initiatives and heightened macro and geopolitical uncertainties,” he writes.
“While we see no de-rating catalyst for SGX in the near term, we think positives for the company should have been well digested by the market and hence likely been priced in. In addition, SGX’s FY2028 P/E of 27.1 times is also a premium over its global peers, which are mostly trading at 18 times - 24 times,” he adds. “As such, we will seek a better entry point to invest in SGX.”
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RHB Bank Singapore’s Shekhar Jaiswal remains “neutral” on SGX with an unchanged target price of $20.90. Despite strong data, which has it trading at 8.1% and 5.7% ahead of his estimates for securities and derivatives, respectively, Jaiswal believes SGX’s valuations are “stretched”.
His target price, which continues to be based on an FY2027 earnings per share (EPS) estimate of 26 times and at 2 s.d. above SGX’s 12-year forward P/E average, remains “elevated”. This, to Jaiswal, “adequately reflects the structural improvements in market activity”.
That said, the analyst sees upside risk to his FY2026 net profit forecast of $734 million. “We maintain that while the improvements in market breadth and trading intensity are encouraging, the elevated valuation probably reflects much of this positive momentum.”
