The former CEO of Tiger Brokers Singapore is now a business director overseeing futures at digital brokerage platform uSmart, where he has taken on an additional role as an equity analyst.
Acknowledging his less conventional career path, Eng says his on-the-ground insights — gained from speaking with retail investors and understanding their needs — offer a different perspective on stocks compared to analysts who focus mainly on the macro picture.
Eng joined uSmart in May last year, a time when interest had already returned to the Singapore market after the $5 billion Equities Market Development Programme (EQDP) fund was announced in February 2025. At Budget 2026, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced an addition of $1.5 billion to the EQDP fund, bringing its total to $6.5 billion. For uSmart, which expanded its research coverage of Singapore-listed stocks in the last quarter of 2025, the timing was fortuitous.
Previously, uSmart, which is backed by Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Group, focused on US and Hong Kong equities, placing little emphasis on Singapore stocks, as it already had “more than enough to cover” and "a lot of stories to tell”.
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After the launch of the EQDP, uSmart decided to allocate some of its resources — including having two Singapore-based analysts — to the city-state. So far, Eng’s coverage, which includes Starhill Global REIT, Food Empire, LMS Compliance and Kimly, is a modest start.
“We see the results of the EQDP kicking in,” says Eng. When asked if the brokerage saw increased interest in Singapore equities, he said there has been a “slight increase” in the number of transactions. He adds that the newsflow has led to listed companies being more proactive in announcing their next moves.
In September 2025, Chee Hong Tat, Minister for National Development and deputy chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said the equities market review group was exploring the idea of a “Value Unlock” programme to help companies unlock their value. Part of these initiatives include MAS providing grants to support companies’ investments in building capabilities in areas such as corporate strategy, capital optimisation and investor relations.
To Eng, these and other initiatives, which have driven liquidity to the market, are a “good symptom”.
The unconventional analyst
Eng is not your average analyst. He did not come up through the sell-side, nor did he spend his early years building models under a senior analyst. It was during his time at Tiger Brokers that he first got closely involved with research.
He starts with the top-down view, where he looks at which markets, countries and industries are in motion. Government support, he says, often indicates where money will flow before the market fully prices
it in.
But where he diverges from the standard playbook is in his stock selection. Rather than gravitating toward the obvious beneficiary of a trend, Eng examines one layer below, which are companies with partial exposure to a sector through their subsidiaries. It is often here, he says, where the benefits of a theme are most directly reflected in valuations, making for a more compelling investment case.
Who is the Singapore investor?
After spending years speaking to investors, Singaporean ones, in his view, are “conservative”. Unlike Hong Kong investors, who are more “risk-takers” and are interested in quick punts, the Singaporean investor, by contrast, prefers to have all their facts laid out. That, he notes with a laugh, is good news for analysts.
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Singaporean investors also tend to want a mix of growth stocks and counters with dividends or provide stable growth.
He notes that a typical Singaporean investor begins with a defined budget, often targeting high-growth stocks while maintaining a portion of their reserves in stable, dividend-paying stocks or consistent-growth funds.
Sectors to watch in the near term
While the US-Iran conflict is likely to impact markets for the next six months, Eng remains positive on these themes in the longer run: defence, cybersecurity, consumer and artificial intelligence (AI).
“When things heat up militarily, aerospace and defence stocks usually give you steadier extra gains than the wild swings we see in energy,” he says. “If you look at history and leave out the first month right after the Gulf War and 9/11, this sector has averaged a 10.8% return over six months.”
He adds that the win is two-fold: “There is the immediate rush to restock ammunition, then there is the bigger picture where governments start rethinking and beefing up their long-term defence spending.”
On cybersecurity, Eng notes that cyber warfare is “no longer a side show” but the main stage. “Now that we’re seeing countries go after power grids and banks, cybersecurity has shifted from being a ‘nice-to-have’ IT line item to a survival necessity”.
On the consumer front, Eng believes the worst may have been behind us. China is “picking up”; Singapore may also see a recovery. The US, meanwhile, remains uncertain under the recent administration.
On AI, Eng has little interest in the big names, such as the US’s Magnificent Seven that, he feels, have already had their run. He also believes there is a saturation in the market, where new collaborations do not move the needle for company shares as much.
The more interesting trade, he notes, is in AI companies building real-world applications — whether in the medical field or helping to lift heavy things. In the next six months, such applications will “outshine” and “outrun” from “normal” uses, which people are struggling to find uses for.
Meanwhile, Eng says he avoids short term speculative stocks that lack fundamental support such as those driven purely by hype or fleeting trends such as the recently-listed CCH Holdings. Instead, he prefers companies that provide sustainable, long-term value such as Malaysia Smelting Corporation.
Eng adds that investors should choose wisely, given the variety of choices available and not opt for speculative counters.
The US, Hong Kong and Singapore markets
When asked about the preferences of uSmart’s investors, the US still ranks first, followed by Hong Kong, then Singapore.
On the US, Eng notes that analysts do not guess the peaks, but he adds that the volatility wreaked by Trump is a “concern”. While US-listed stocks are still worth investing in, Eng says he would advise his customers to slow down and shorten the investment period.
Hong Kong, he notes, may still benefit from companies who may not be able to list in the US due to political reasons. IPOs are also returning to the North Asian bourse since 4Q2025.
Eng also remains constructive on Singapore stocks despite the market’s recent run, due to the EQDP. He notes that the run-up has also been focused mainly on the components within the Straits Times Index (STI) and as such, there are still undervalued names within the second tiers.
Besides, with investors still returning, the money within the Singapore bourse may not be circulated as quickly as well.
That said, despite the renewed interest, Eng believes more can be done to raise awareness. The brokerage still finds itself reaching out to sell Singapore equities, rather than investors approaching them with buy orders for locally-listed names — a sign that the education piece remains work in progress.
