5 Singapore Stocks to Watch in 2026 | InvestNotBet

D05 DBS Group ▲ 5.2% yieldO39 OCBC ▲ record highU11 UOB ▲ 4.6% yieldZ74 Singtel ▲ AI infra playC38U CICT ▲ 97.2% occupancyD05 DBS Group ▲ 5.2% yieldO39 OCBC ▲ record highU11 UOB ▲ 4.6% yield

Singapore Equities · Watchlist

5 Singapore Stocks Worth a Look in 2026

Two bank stalwarts, a third that rounds out the trio, a regional telco reinventing itself as an AI infrastructure play, and Singapore’s largest REIT. Here’s the case for each — and the dividends behind them.

INVESTNOTBET.COM · MARKET COMMENTARY

Singapore’s stock market doesn’t move like Nasdaq. There’s no rocket-ship SaaS name doubling in a quarter, and that’s rather the point. The Straits Times Index is built on banks, telcos, industrials and REITs — businesses that print cash, pay it out reliably, and rarely blow up overnight. For income-focused investors, or anyone tired of watching speculative positions swing 20% on a headline, that’s a feature, not a bug.

Below are five SGX-listed names worth understanding before you buy: DBS and OCBC, the two most-asked-about local banks, plus three others that round out a more diversified income shortlist — UOB, Singtel and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust. Figures below reflect early-to-mid 2026 reporting; always check the live price and latest dividend declaration before placing an order, since yields move inversely to price.

01SGX: D05

DBS Group Holdings

Banking · Wealth Management

Forward Yield

~5.2%–5.8%

FY2025 Net Profit

S$11.0B

ROE

16.2%

DBS is Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets and Singapore’s most valuable listed company, operating across 19 markets with a market cap north of S$160 billion. It’s also the digital leader of the local trio — DBS has spent over a decade rebuilding its core banking stack, and that investment now shows up in its wealth management arm, where assets under management climbed to roughly S$488 billion by end-FY2025.

FY2025 net profit came in at S$11.0 billion, a slight dip from the prior year’s record mostly due to higher tax expenses, while total income rose 3% to a record S$22.9 billion on the back of strong fee income and trading gains. DBS raised its quarterly ordinary dividend to S$0.66, bringing FY2025’s total payout to S$3.06 per share — about 38% higher year-on-year — and has committed to an additional S$0.15 per share “capital return” dividend every quarter through 2027, funded by its S$3 billion buyback programme.

Why buy

DBS trades at a premium to its two local peers (around 2–2.6x book value) but backs that up with the highest ROE and dividend-per-share of the three banks. If you want one Singapore bank and nothing else, DBS’s combination of digital scale, wealth-management growth and an explicit multi-year capital return commitment makes the clearest case.

02SGX: O39

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC)

Banking · Insurance · Wealth

Forward Yield

~4.2%–4.3%

FY2025 Net Profit

S$7.42B

Market Cap

S$100B+

OCBC is Singapore’s second-largest bank and, unusually for 2026, the one making fresh all-time highs — its share price crossed S$22.83 in early April, pushing its market cap above S$100 billion for the first time. What’s driving it is earnings diversification: roughly 39% of group income now comes from wealth-related sources across private banking (Bank of Singapore), insurance (Great Eastern, in which OCBC holds a 93.72% stake) and asset management, which cushions the bank when net interest margins compress.

FY2025 net profit was S$7.42 billion, slightly below the prior year’s record, but profit before tax hit a new high of S$9.12 billion. OCBC proposed a total FY2025 dividend of S$0.99 per share — including a S$0.16 special dividend — for a 60% payout ratio, part of a broader S$2.5 billion capital return programme running through FY2026.

Why buy

OCBC is the “quality at a reasonable price” option of the trio — it trades at a lower price-to-book multiple than DBS while offering the most diversified earnings base of the three banks. If DBS looks fully priced after its run-up, OCBC’s steadier, insurance-and-wealth-cushioned income stream is the more conservative entry point.

03SGX: U11

United Overseas Bank (UOB)

Banking · ASEAN Corporate & Retail

Forward Yield

~4.6%–4.8%

Payout Ratio

~50%

Market Cap

~S$61B

UOB rounds out Singapore’s bank trio and offers the clearest regional growth story of the three, with more than 470 branches across 19 markets spanning Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and China. FY2025 operating profit came in at a healthy S$7.7 billion, though net profit moderated to S$4.7 billion after the bank set aside pre-emptive general provisions earlier in the year to strengthen its buffers against macro uncertainty — a conservative move that showed up as record net fee income of S$2.6 billion, driven by wealth management and loan-related activity.

UOB has historically paired a steady ~50% payout ratio with special dividends when business is strong — shareholders received two S$0.25 special dividends in 2024 alone. Net interest margin is guided at 1.75%–1.80% for 2026, and credit costs normalised to 19 basis points in the fourth quarter after the earlier provisioning spike.

Why buy

UOB screens as the highest headline yield of the three banks and trades at the lowest price-to-book multiple (around 1.3x), leaving more room for re-rating if its ASEAN loan growth and wealth income targets — management wants to roughly double wealth income to S$2.5 billion by 2030 — play out.

04SGX: Z74

Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel)

Telecommunications · AI Infrastructure

FY2026 Yield

~4.1%

FY2026 DPS

S$0.185

Underlying Profit

+20.7%

Singtel is the odd one out on this list, and that’s exactly its appeal: it’s a telecom stock trying to become an AI infrastructure story. Beyond its core Singapore and Optus (Australia) operations, Singtel holds stakes in some of Asia’s largest mobile operators — Bharti Airtel in India, AIS in Thailand, Globe in the Philippines and Telkomsel in Indonesia — giving it exposure to over 700 million mobile subscribers across 21 countries. More recently, it’s been building out GPU-as-a-service, sovereign AI capacity and regional data centres under its Nxera brand.

FY2026 results (year ended March 2026) showed underlying profit up 20.7%, helped by an Optus turnaround and margin expansion at NCS, its enterprise IT arm. The share price fell nearly 10% after results on higher FY2027 capex guidance, but the record ordinary dividend of S$0.185 per share still landed — supported by Singtel’s ongoing asset recycling programme, which freed up S$3.9 billion in FY2026 with another S$3.2 billion of divestments targeted over the next two years.

Why buy

The post-earnings dip pushed Singtel’s yield back above the Singapore 10-year government bond, and you’re getting a regional telecom empire plus an emerging AI infrastructure arm for the price of a defensive dividend stock. The trade-off: capex is rising, and the AI narrative still needs to show up more clearly in earnings.

05SGX: C38U

CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT)

REIT · Retail & Office

Distribution Yield

~4.6%

Portfolio Value

S$27.4B

Occupancy

97.2%

No Singapore dividend list is complete without a REIT, and CICT is the largest one on the exchange. Formed from the 2020 merger of CapitaLand Mall Trust and CapitaLand Commercial Trust, it owns 26 properties worth S$27.4 billion — a mix of Singapore shopping malls (think Raffles City, Plaza Singapura, ION Orchard-adjacent assets) and CBD office towers, with a small slice of exposure in Australia and Germany. Blue-chip tenants including Temasek Holdings, UNIQLO and NTUC anchor a portfolio running at 97.2% occupancy.

FY2025 distribution per unit rose 6.4% year-on-year to 11.58 cents, helped by the step-up acquisition to full ownership of CapitaSpring. That’s the seventh straight year of DPU growth since 2020 — a stretch that includes the Covid downturn and the high-inflation years of 2022–2023 — supported by consistently positive rental reversions on both retail and office leases.

Why buy

CICT is the closest thing on this list to “set and forget” income: a diversified, high-occupancy portfolio of prime Singapore real estate with a multi-year track record of raising distributions. As interest rates ease through 2026, REITs like CICT typically benefit twice — from lower financing costs and from income investors rotating back in.

Building it into a portfolio

None of these five needs to be an all-or-nothing bet. A reasonable starting point is to treat the three banks as a single “financials” sleeve rather than buying all three in full size — DBS for quality and digital scale, OCBC for diversified earnings at a cheaper multiple, UOB for regional leverage and the highest headline yield — then use Singtel and CICT to add sector diversification outside of banking, one skewed toward growth-plus-income, the other toward pure income.

As always with dividend stocks, the yield you see today is a snapshot: it moves as share prices move, and payouts aren’t guaranteed. Check each company’s latest results and dividend declaration before buying, and size positions according to your own risk tolerance and time horizon.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or tax advice. Prices, yields and financial figures cited are based on the most recent public reporting available at time of writing and are subject to change. Past dividend performance is not indicative of future payouts. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions. InvestNotBet.com · Singapore Market Commentary