2025: The Lion City awakens

[SINGAPORE] With the surprise re-election of Donald Trump as United States president in November 2024, investors went into 2025 anticipating high levels of volatility in the global markets from his aggressive stance on foreign and macro policy.

As stock markets started trading in 2025, investors were apprehensive about the impact of a potential trade war and painful tariffs.

But the growth potential of artificial intelligence was a catalyst for stock markets to soar to new heights. Major US indices like the Nasdaq Composite Index and S&P 500 continued to hit new records.

The Straits Times Index (STI) followed suit and ended the last trading session of the year at 4,646.21.

The local benchmark returned 28.8 per cent this year on a dividend-reinvested total return basis. In US dollar terms, it was up 37.1 per cent as at Dec 31.

In comparison, on the same basis, it outperformed the Nasdaq Composite Index (22.1 per cent) and S&P 500 (18.7 per cent) as at Dec 30.