The market-making sleeve is arguably the sharper signal for traders. It goes at liquidity, the weak spot for smaller SGX names, while the manager funding aims at demand. Together they are supportive for Singapore small and mid-caps, though the effect will depend on how fast the managers deploy capital and how much third-party money follows. The sleeve’s size is modest at about $16 million (currency unspecified), so any lift in trading interest is likely to be gradual.
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Singapore is pairing fresh manager funding with a market-making sleeve, attacking both demand and liquidity in its long-lagging stock market.
The push comes with the Straits Times Index already near record highs (chart above), though the gains have been concentrated in the large banks, the stocks least in need of extra liquidity.
Summary
- MAS will allocate S$1.45 billion (US$1.1 billion) to five asset managers to boost Singapore equities, Deputy Chairman Chee Hong Tat said on Tuesday.
- It is the third batch under the S$6.5 billion Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP).
- MAS is also introducing a $16 million market-making sleeve to raise trading interest in SGX-listed stocks. The currency was not specified.
- Earlier batches were about S$1.1 billion to three managers in July 2025 and about S$2.85 billion to six managers in November 2025.
- Other measures in the package include a S$30 million “Value Unlock” programme, smaller board lots and a proposed SGX-Nasdaq dual-listing bridge.
Singapore will allocate S$1.45 billion (US$1.1 billion) to five asset managers to boost its equities market, Monetary Authority of Singapore Deputy Chairman Chee Hong Tat said on Tuesday. It is the third batch of funding to asset managers under the S$6.5 billion Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP).
Chee also said MAS is introducing a $16 million market-making sleeve to raise trading interest in stocks listed on the Singapore Exchange. The currency of that figure was not specified in the headline. The sleeve targets liquidity, a long-running complaint about smaller Singapore-listed companies, where thin trading can keep institutional investors away.
The EQDP was launched in February 2025 to strengthen local fund management capabilities and channel more money into Singapore-listed stocks. It forms part of a wider effort to lift trading and valuations on the exchange, run through the Equities Market Review Group.
The rollout gives useful context. The first batch, in July 2025, was about S$1.1 billion to three managers. A second batch in November 2025 placed about S$2.85 billion with six managers, including BlackRock, taking total allocations to around S$3.95 billion across nine managers. Adding today’s S$1.45 billion would take the total to roughly S$5.4 billion, leaving around S$1.1 billion of the programme uncommitted. The S$1.1 billion first batch and today’s US$1.1 billion are different amounts in different currencies.
The programme was expanded after Budget 2026, lifting its size from S$5 billion to S$6.5 billion. MAS said the top-up would fund more high-quality managers with strategies that invest heavily in Singapore equities, and help draw third-party money into the market alongside.
The EQDP has come with other measures, including a S$30 million “Value Unlock” programme with the exchange to help listed companies improve investor engagement, smaller board lots for stocks priced above S$10, and a proposed dual-listing bridge between SGX and Nasdaq for larger Asian companies.
The names of the five managers and the mandate terms were not part of the initial headlines. Investors will look for those details, and for how quickly the new money is deployed, to judge the likely effect on liquidity and valuations.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.