Singapore's Big Three Banks Sold Off as Citi Downgrades OCBC to 'Sell'; OCBC Falls 5.9% in a Day
SINGAPORE — Singapore's three big bank stocks suffered their sharpest sell-off of the year on October 7. The trigger was Citigroup's downgrade of OCBC from 'neutral' to 'sell', with a target price of S$27.50, on expectations that its third-quarter earnings would be flat year on year. OCBC plunged 5.9 percent that day to close at S$30.30; UOB fell 2.9 percent to S$42.44; and DBS fell 1.4 percent to S$77.49. All three had reached record or near-record levels earlier in the year.
Analysts say this was not one bank's problem but a sector-wide valuation reset: when all three decline together, the market is signalling that expectations for the whole sector may have become too demanding. DBS crossed S$200 billion in market capitalisation in July, a first for a Singapore-listed company, and the three banks together account for roughly half the Straits Times Index — their moves drag the whole market. Bloomberg's analysis noted that JPMorgan warned rising long bond yields would produce high mark-to-market losses on banks' trading books and hurt capital activity for Southeast Asian banks, and that HSBC had cut Singapore stocks to neutral as valuations became stretched and financial conditions weighed on real estate.
Not everyone is turning cautious. Some strategists argue there are still no overtly concerning signs of bad debt, loan growth remains relatively healthy, and the government's efforts to rejuvenate the equities market should limit downside risks. 'As we enter the traditionally turbulent month of October, the only thing we can be sure of is more volatility in price action ahead,' said Jen-Ai Chua, Asia equity research analyst at Julius Baer.
The sell-off deepened on October 8, taking the three banks' two-day losses to between 6 and 10 percent, with the STI posting its worst day since April 2025. For ordinary savers and pension investors — bank stocks are a core holding in Singapore household portfolios — how long and how deep this correction runs is the local market's biggest question of the month.
Sources: Compiled from SG Stocks Investing and Financial Horse's summaries of October 7 trading data, and Bloomberg's bank-sector analysis carried by Livemint.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 莱佛士坊华侨银行中心前的雕塑，Terence Ong 摄，CC BY 2.5（Wikimedia Commons）
