🦎 IGGY MORNING BRIEF, 20 AUGUST 2026
☕ Good morning, Iguanas. SGX opens at 9 am SGT. A calmer overnight session, plus a genuinely interesting policy signal out of MAS.
OVERNIGHT US SUMMARY
Wall Street steadied after three days of losses. Dow +0.22% to 53,463.05. S&P 500 +0.21% to 7,707.98. Nasdaq +0.16% to 26,331.09. Treasury yields eased as the US Treasury signalled increased long-term debt buybacks. Biotech and healthcare outperformed. VIX fell to 15.08. For SGX, this looks like a pause in selling rather than a full reversal. Watch whether it holds.
SGX PRE-OPEN PULSE
USD/SGD at 1.2712, down ~0.56%. Brent eased to US$90.06, a small pullback after recent gains.
SINGAPORE NEWS ON IGGY’S RADAR
🏦 MAS rolls out tax breaks and wider visa access to attract fund managers
New tax exemptions on qualifying fund profits, including single family offices, plus expanded access to the five-year Overseas Networks and Expertise Pass. This is a clear competitive move against Hong Kong for asset management flows. It is a structural story for where capital and talent sit in the region, not an immediate portfolio mover.
💵 Singtel completes FY2026 dividend, total 18.5 cents per share
Underlying net profit rose 12% to $2.8 billion. This confirms what was already expected: core dividend plus VRD. No change to positioning.
✈️ SATS Q1 net profit +6% to S$75.1 million on cargo growth
A steady result with cargo doing the work. Worth monitoring, especially as the stock was flagged for attention today.
IGGY’S GAME PLAN
The MAS fund manager push is the key story. It signals where Singapore intends to compete over the next few years. Markets stabilising is encouraging, but one session does not reverse a multi-day de-rating. I want to see follow-through. Singtel and SATS both reinforce existing narratives rather than change them.
I will likely cover the MAS story in today’s SGX Daily Pulse podcast with Angela.
Not financial advice. Iggy’s Forensic Compliance Standards apply.







