Singapore shares kept recording new highs with the Straits Times Index (STI) jumping 2.5% this week, tracking gains across regional indices as investors responded positively to healthy US retail data and strong earnings from Wall Street's heavy hitters.

In terms of individual stocks, Food Empire and Thomson Medical up 19%; NIO up 15%.

Food Empire partners AirAsia to launch ready-to-drink beverages

Mainboard-listed Food Empire will partner low-cost airline AirAsia to co-develop and launch a new range of ready-to-drink beverages.

The memorandum of understanding was signed between Food Empire’s unit Empire International and AirAsia’s Santan Food Services, said the statement on Thursday (Jul 17).

Tony Fernandes, chief executive of AirAsia and its Malaysia-listed parent company Capital A, said that the partnership aims to create a product that reflects South-east Asia’s culture and heritage.

Singapore Skirts Recession as Construction, Exports Buoy Growth

Singapore’s economy expanded in the second quarter, avoiding a technical recession on a rise in construction activity and strong exports as businesses seek to front-run higher US tariffs.

Gross domestic product grew 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis in the three months through June, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said Monday, versus a forecast for a 0.8% increase and a revised 0.5% contraction in the first quarter.

GDP in the quarter also expanded from a year earlier, at 4.3%. That compares with a median forecast of 3.6% growth in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Singapore AUM up 12.2% in 2024, Exceeds S$6 Trillion for the First Time

Total assets under management (AUM) in Singapore rose 12.2 per cent to hit S$6.07 trillion as at Dec 31, 2024, surpassing the S$6 trillion mark for the first time.

In 2024, the financial services sector grew by 6.8 per cent, more than double the 3.1 per cent growth a year earlier, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) annual report released on Tuesday (Jul 15).

On average, the sector grew 4.7 per cent each year between 2021 and 2024.