The latest official data shows that in May 2026, the overall AUM of ETFs listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) officially exceeded S$21 billion, hitting a record high. The whole market saw net inflows of S$334 million for the month, with trading activity for equity, gold, and bond ETFs all increasing. Singapore's position as an Asia-Pacific ETF allocation hub continues to strengthen.
From a capital structure perspective, AI and China science & innovation theme ETFs were the biggest winners of the period. The CSOP CSI STAR&CHINEXT 50 ETF returned nearly 19% for the month, while the Amova Asia Pacific Emerging Markets (ex-China and Japan) ETF rose 17%. Benefiting from the global technology industry cycle recovery and a rebound in semiconductor and digital economy orders, many European and American asset managers and Southeast Asian family offices are using SGX to allocate to A-share hard tech sectors, bypassing direct market entry compliance hurdles and leveraging SGX's 24-hour trading mechanism for flexible rebalancing.
Haven-tied gold ETFs also saw large capital inflows, with total net inflows of S$150 million for the month. Against the backdrop of global geopolitical uncertainty and repeated shifts in Fed rate cut expectations, SPDR series gold ETFs have continued to receive steady buying, becoming core hedging tools for institutions to offset exchange rate and equity volatility. Meanwhile, the flagship Straits Times Index ETF (ES3) has recorded net inflows for 16 consecutive months, with AUM surpassing S$3.2 billion. The trend of foreign capital accessing Southeast Asian blue chips via Singapore local broad-based ETFs is becoming increasingly apparent.
The China-Singapore ETF connect mechanism continues to release dividends. To date, the number of two-way connect products has expanded to 9, with total AUM exceeding S$700 million. Southbound products focus on Southeast Asian consumer, industrial, and tech sectors, while northbound ones cover A-share dividends, STAR, and ChiNext high-quality assets. This has opened up two-way allocation channels for investors in both countries, attracting significant mainland capital to go abroad to ASEAN and overseas capital to allocate to Chinese core assets.
Market institutions analyze that SGX ETF categories now cover equity, fixed income, REITs, commodities, and currency-hedged diversified assets. Combined with the stable Singapore dollar, free capital flow, and internationally aligned regulatory standards, more regional wealth management institutions will choose SGX as the preferred platform for cross-border ETF allocation. In the future, as thematic ETFs such as low-carbon, Southeast Asia dividend, and Vietnam market continue to be listed, the SGX ETF market still has room for further expansion.
