Hot stock: iFast rises 6.2% to continue run as 'Singapore's best-performing stock'

SHARES of iFast Corp rose as much as 6.2 per cent on Thursday. This comes days after Bloomberg News reported that the counter was Singapore's best-performing stock over the past year, and that it would pursue more gains in China, which looks to be its fastest-growing market.

The investment products distribution platform's shares have soared 552 per cent in the last 12 months, a performance that beat all members of the FTSE ST All-Share Index, according to Bloomberg.

As at 10.26am on Thursday, the counter had surged S$0.43 or 6.2 per cent to S$7.42, with about 1.6 million shares changing hands. The share price later eased to S$7.33 around 11.24am before pausing at S$7.38, up S$0.39 or 5.6 per cent, by the midday trading break.

Singapore Press Holdings, which publishes The Business Times, owned 14.6 per cent of iFast as at March 5.

At present, iFast counts Singapore as its largest market. It wants to grow its assets by more than fivefold to reach S$100 billion of assets under administration by 2028, and it is banking on China and a retail-trading frenzy to reach its goal.

The firm's chief executive officer Lim Chung Chun said that although it is generating losses under its Chinese operations, they are "manageable amounts" considering the size of the market, which he believes holds immense potential.

iFast initiated private fund management in China this February, and has also expanded into Hong Kong and Malaysia in the past year.

Retail trading has seen a surge as investors stuck at home have been trying their hands at equities, Bloomberg reported, something which helped to double iFast's net income last year.

Mr Lim said that to achieve the company's asset goal, it will need to expand at a compounded annual rate of 27 per cent through 2028, compared with 34 per cent in the past two years.