Singapore’s financial markets entered uncharted territory this week as the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) breached the 5,000-point mark for the first time in history.
This record-breaking rally is underpinned by a powerhouse economy: 2025 GDP growth has been revised upward to a robust 5%, while real household incomes have surged by 6.8%.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s Budget 2026 statement doubled down on artificial intelligence adoption and business transformation, whilst maintaining support for households through enhanced voucher schemes and a new CPF investment option.
The Straits Times Index (STI) surpassed the 5,000 mark for the first time on 12 February 2026, hitting 5,004.02 in morning trading.
This historic milestone came well ahead of analyst forecasts and was driven by strong gains across blue-chip constituents, particularly the three local banks which comprise around half the index by weight.
DBS Group (SGX: D05) rose 0.5% to S$57.77, OCBC Bank (SGX: O39) climbed 1.3% to S$21.62, and UOB (SGX: U11) advanced 0.9% to S$39.23.
The breakthrough follows an impressive 22.7% gain for the STI in 2025 and reflects the success of measures to revitalise Singapore’s equities market, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) S$5 billion Equity Market Development Programme and the proposed SGX-Nasdaq dual-listing framework.
Analysts have turned increasingly bullish, with JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) projecting the index could reach as high as 6,500 points by year-end.
Singapore’s median household market income grew 6.8% in real terms in 2025, according to new data from the Department of Statistics (SingStat) released on 9 February 2026.
This marks the first calculation under SingStat’s expanded definition which now captures “market income” including non-employment sources such as rental income, investment income, annuity and Central Provident Fund (CPF) payouts.
Median monthly household market income rose 7.7% in nominal terms to S$12,446, whilst per household member it increased 8.4% nominally to S$4,160.
Average monthly household market income per household member rose across all income deciles, ranging from 4.2% to 13.5% in nominal terms, with lower-income households experiencing higher growth rates.
Employment remained the main income source at 79.6% of total household market income, though this share declined slightly from 81.1% in 2024.
Income inequality also fell to its lowest level since 2015, with the Gini coefficient declining to 0.452 from 0.46 in 2024.
