【Live Recap 1】STI Crosses 5,000 — Kenny Loh on the Rally, Forecasts & Portfolio Building

Speaker: @Kenny_Loh (Wealth Advisory Director, S-REIT Specialist & SGX Academy Trainer)

Live Date: August 4, 2026 (Live Review>>)

In this livestream, Kenny Loh unpacked what's actually driving the Straits Times Index's break past 5,000 — 60 years of history, record ETF inflows, and a range of institutional forecasts stretching all the way to 10,000 by 2040 — before walking through his own client-facing framework for turning a market view like this into a real, risk-calibrated portfolio.

Want a deeper dive? We broke this session down into 4 full recap articles, each covering a different piece of the puzzle>

• Live Recap 1: Singapore's Quiet Rally — Inside the Road to the 5,000 STI Milestone

• Live Recap 2: The Sleep-Well Portfolio — Kenny Loh's Framework for Allocating to Singapore

• Live Recap 3: From Safe Haven to Investment Magnet — The Case for Singapore

• Live Recap 4: Hunting for Alpha — Amova's Small & Mid-Cap Playbook and New Fund Suite

Prefer to watch the highlights? Catch these key moments from the live session in short clip form>

• 【Livestream Clip 1｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: STI Hit 5,000 — Is 6,000 Closer Than You Think?】

• 【Livestream Clip 2｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: STI Rallied Hard — But Is It Still Cheap?】

• 【Livestream Clip 3｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: Singapore GDP at 6%? Most Investors Missed This】

• 【Livestream Clip 4｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: Smart Investors Don’t Just Pick Stocks】

🐯💬 Join the discussion: Share your market view or questions below. Every useful and thoughtful comment will receive Tiger Coins!

🎯 5 Key Takeaways

• The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$'s rally isn't a sudden spike — it followed close to two decades of sideways trading before the MAS-led Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) helped push it to break out to new highs, closing around 5,612 as of the livestream.

• SGX's ETF market hit record highs in 1H2026: S$21 billion in AUM (+43% y-o-y), S$4.1 billion in net inflows, and daily liquidity up 121% y-o-y to S$51 million — with retail investors now 42% of that base.

• Institutional forecasts range widely: $JPMorgan Chase(JPM)$ and $IFAST(AIY.SI)$ see 6,000 by end-2026/2028; most other houses cluster around 5,000; DBS has the most aggressive call at 10,000 by 2040.

• Kenny Loh's advisory process runs on four steps — needs discovery, risk calibration, strategic asset allocation, and active monitoring/rebalancing — building what he calls a "sleep well" portfolio rather than chasing returns.

• Asset allocation should shift with life stage: higher equity weighting early in a career, gradually rebalancing toward fixed income and dividend-generating assets approaching and during retirement.

📈 Sixty Years in the Making

The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$ has traded since 1966, but the real story is more recent: from 2008 to around 2024, the index moved largely sideways. The breakout only came in the past one to two years, after MAS's EQDP announcement helped push the index to new highs.

💰 Where the Money Is Flowing

SGX's latest ETF report shows record growth — S$21 billion AUM, up 43% y-o-y, with S$4.1 billion in net inflows over the past 12 months and daily liquidity up 121% y-o-y to S$51 million. Roughly a quarter of that flow sits in Singapore equities, another quarter in international equities, with the rest split across gold, Singapore REITs and Asia-Pacific REIT exposure — increasingly channelled through SRS and CPF-OA savings.

🔮 How High Could the STI Go?

Forecasts vary sharply: JP Morgan and iFAST are most bullish (6,000 by end-2026 or end-2028), most other houses cluster near 5,000, and $DBS(D05.SI)$ has floated the most aggressive target — 10,000 by 2040. Kenny Loh's own take: plausible, though nobody can say for certain.

🧭 The Four-Step Portfolio Process

Every client goes through the same process: needs discovery (growth vs. income), risk calibration (building something you can genuinely "sleep well" with), strategic asset allocation (becoming your own asset allocator rather than stock-picker), and active monitoring with regular rebalancing.

🎂 Matching Allocation to Life Stage

Risk profile isn't static. Early-career investors can lean into equities for growth; mid-career shifts toward capital preservation (something like a 70/30 equity-bond split); near-retirement and retirement portfolios shift further toward fixed income, cash, gold and dividend-paying equities for income generation.

🧩 Diversify the Building Blocks, Not Just the Names

For a moderate risk profile, Kenny Loh suggests roughly 60% equities diversified across Singapore, the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, complemented by fixed income, alternatives for accredited investors, and gold as a hedge. His closing line: diversification is "the only free lunch in investing."

🔍 Discussion Highlights

• On why Singapore now: Kenny Loh admitted the market "used to be very boring" after two decades of sideways trading — but he's increased his own personal allocation since the recent rally, while still cautioning that not every sector is equally attractive.

• On risk management: even when investing through funds, Kenny Loh stressed diversifying across fund managers too, rather than concentrating with a single manager.

💬 Words from Kenny Loh

"Diversification is the only free lunch in investing."

"We want to have a portfolio which we can sleep well."

"Instead of stock-picking, we elevate ourselves to be the asset allocator."

🐯 Your Turn: Join the Discussion

Share your view on one of these questions:

• Do you think the STI can realistically hit 10,000 by 2040 — definitely, maybe, or not a chance?

• Where does your own portfolio sit on Kenny Loh's risk-profile spectrum — conservative, moderate, or aggressive?

• Has the recent rally changed how you think about allocating to Singapore equities?

• Which part of the four-step process (needs discovery, risk calibration, allocation, rebalancing) do you find hardest to actually follow through on?

🎁 Every useful, thoughtful, and well-explained comment will receive Tiger Coins.

Let's compare different views and learn from one another.