OCBC’s shares hit record as wealth unit shines

[SINGAPORE] OCBC shares hit a fresh record on Tuesday (Dec 2) as the wealth-management business outperforms, according to analysts.

OCBC shares gained as much as 0.6 per cent, above the previous high from more than two weeks ago. The stock has underperformed Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index and its biggest company, DBS Group Holdings year-to-date, but since the beginning of November it’s been besting both of those.

OCBC shares are supported by “outperformance in the wealth franchise, and the optionality of higher dividends in 2026”, said Jayden Vantarakis, the head of Asean equity research at Macquarie Capital. “We identified the stock as having room to close the gap with DBS.”

Singaporean stocks have reached records this year on an influx of liquidity, with investors fleeing to the safe haven amid global trade tensions and the outlook for US Federal Reserve rate cuts.

The three largest banks including UOB, which account for about half of the benchmark index, have benefited from wealth-management and trading-fee income.

“Wealth fees will drive revenue growth at Singapore’s three banks in 2026, building on their 34 per cent average increase so far this year with OCBC setting the pace,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sarah Jane Mahmud wrote in a note last month. BLOOMBERG