Singapore's small-mid caps bound for growth

MAS’s EQDP is expected to attract capital beyond $5b investment.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s $5b Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) signals to the market that small-mid caps are no longer an afterthought, but now a key focus, supported by targeted policies, according to a report by DBS Group Research Equity.

According to the report, SMCs offer investors the opportunity to outperform the market. The average MTD gain of 11.9% amongst the 58 non-index stocks under our coverage exceeds the Straits Times Index (STI)’s 7.5%.

Concrete progress with the EQDP, attractive forward valuations, and improved investor sentiment should support continued outperformance relative to large-cap stocks.

The report said that the EQDP is expected to attract capital beyond the MAS’s $5b seed fund investment, representing a significant percentage of the SMC market capitalisation.

Recent interest has featured SMCs with attractive valuations, value-unlocking potential, earnings turnarounds, and/or resilient yield.

On 21 July, the first batch of EQDP asset managers was appointed, with an initial $1.1b allocated to Avanda, Fullerton, and JP Morgan Asset Management. The selection phase for the remaining $3.9b will be announced in Q4 2025 and 2026.

Funds remain relatively underinvested in Singapore equities by historical standards, despite the STI reaching all-time highs. As of 29 July 2025, the ratio of FTSE ST AllShare market capitalisation (SGD724.7bn, representing 98% of the SGX mainboard universe) to M2 ris 0.846, nearing levels last seen during the global financial crisis.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia