For investors relying on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) as a gateway to broader Asian growth, the past year has delivered extraordinary, alpha-generating returns. While global headlines often fixate on US tech equities, a quiet but violent rally has materialised across Asian emerging markets and Chinese growth sectors.
A review of the top-performing ETFs on the SGX reveals five distinct funds that have surged over 50% on a one-year basis, with the top performer comfortably doubling investors’ capital. The narrative driving these returns is a potent combination of shifting global supply chains, the artificial intelligence (AI) hardware supercycle, and a massive, state-sponsored mean reversion in Chinese technology and green energy.
Here is a professional breakdown of these five outperforming ETFs, sequenced from the lowest (yet still phenomenal) 54% 1-year return, to the staggering 109% surge, detailing the macroeconomic forces, sector rotations, and individual counters that engineered this rally.
1. VNM: CGS Fullgoal Vietnam 30 Sector Cap ETF (+54%)
Vietnam has firmly entrenched itself as the premier beneficiary of the ongoing “China Plus One” global supply chain realignment. As multinational corporations diversify their manufacturing bases away from China due to geopolitical tensions, Vietnam has absorbed record levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Macro Drivers: The 54% surge in this ETF was underpinned by the State Bank of Vietnam’s decisive monetary easing and the government’s aggressive push to clear bureaucratic bottlenecks in infrastructure spending. GDP growth re-accelerated, supported by robust export data in electronics and textiles, while domestic consumption stabilized.
Sector & Counter Analysis: The VNM ETF is heavily concentrated in Financials and Real Estate. The banking sector was the primary engine of performance, driven by accelerating credit growth and expanding net interest margins. Counters like Vietcombank (VCB) and BIDV (BID) rallied aggressively as non-performing loan (NPL) fears subsided. Additionally, the real estate sector experienced a cyclical bottoming; heavyweights like Vinhomes (VHM)and Vingroup (VIC) saw sharp rebounds as the government intervened to restructure corporate bond markets, injecting much-needed liquidity and restoring investor confidence in property developers.
2. EVS: Amova-Straits Trading MSCI China Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index ETF (+59%)
After enduring a brutal, margin-crushing domestic price war throughout 2023 and 2024, the Chinese Electric Vehicle (EV) sector executed a spectacular turnaround, rewarding contrarian investors with a +55% gain.
Macro Drivers: The macroeconomic catalyst was twofold: the stabilization of raw lithium carbonate prices and aggressive state-backed consumer stimulus designed to boost domestic auto upgrades. More importantly, Chinese OEMs proved their global competitiveness. Despite tariff walls erected by the US and Europe, Chinese EV makers successfully pivoted to emerging markets (Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East), maintaining high-volume export growth that defied Western trade restrictions.
Sector & Counter Analysis: This ETF captures the entire EV value chain—from battery manufacturers to autonomous driving software and the OEMs themselves. The performance was heavily anchored by the global dominance of BYD, which not only maintained its crown as the world’s top EV seller but also expanded its premium vehicle lineup, vastly improving its profit margins. Upstream, battery behemoth Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) surged as it secured new global supply contracts and unveiled next-generation solid-state and fast-charging battery technologies, reinforcing China’s absolute monopoly on future mobility supply chains.
3. A93: Amova MSCI AC Asia ex Japan ex China Index ETF (+61%)
This ETF serves as the ultimate proxy for two distinct, powerful global themes: the AI hardware super cycle (via Taiwan and South Korea) and the rapid domestic growth of India. By excluding the stagnant demographics of Japan and the regulatory volatility of China, this index captured the purest elements of Asian growth.
Macro Drivers: The AI revolution requires massive computing power, and the physical architecture for that power is almost entirely manufactured in Taiwan and South Korea. Concurrently, India’s macroeconomic environment featured world-leading GDP growth (routinely exceeding 7%), massive state infrastructure capital expenditure, and a demographic dividend that drove domestic equity inflows to record highs.
Sector & Counter Analysis: The Information Technology and Financial sectors dominated this ETF’s 64% return. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was the undeniable heavyweight champion here, riding the insatiable demand for Nvidia’s AI chips, of which TSMC is the sole manufacturer. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix also contributed heavily, rebounding on the back of surging High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chip pricing. Delta Electronics Inc stole the thunder here – it charted a +520.11% gain over the past 1 year!
4. CXS: UOBAM Ping An ChiNext ETF (+77%)
China’s ChiNext board, often dubbed the “Nasdaq of China,” is home to the country’s most innovative growth companies. After years of being hammered by broad Chinese equity outflows, the index staged a violent 82% mean-reversion rally.
Macro Drivers: This surge was ignited by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) injecting massive liquidity into the financial system and the central government pivoting aggressively toward supporting “new productive forces.” The state recognized that achieving self-sufficiency in high-tech manufacturing, green energy, and biotechnology was a matter of national security, shifting regulatory headwinds into powerful tailwinds.
Global leaders in optical transceivers such as Zhongji Innolight and Eoptolink experienced massive multiple expansion. As global tech hyperscalers ramped up orders for high-speed 800G and 1.6T optical modules to support their generative AI computing clusters, these ChiNext-listed firms captured a dominant share of the global market. This AI-driven wave also lifted critical upstream precision component suppliers like Suzhou TFC Optical, proving that China’s tech board houses highly lucrative, irreplaceable nodes within the global AI hardware supply chain.
5. SCY: CSOP CSI STAR and CHINEXT 50 Index ETF (+107%)
The top performer on the SGX over the past year is the SCY ETF, which tracks the 50 largest and most liquid stocks across both the STAR Market (Shanghai’s tech board) and the ChiNext. Doubling investors’ money in 12 months, this ETF represents the absolute apex of high-beta Chinese technology and semiconductor independence.
Macro Drivers: The 109% return was driven by a combination of extreme baseline undervaluation and the deployment of China’s “Big Fund III” (the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund). Faced with tightening US export controls on advanced semiconductors, Beijing effectively provided a blank check to domestic semiconductor foundries and equipment manufacturers to accelerate localized chip production. This unleashed a wave of capital into the exact companies housed within this ETF.
Sector & Counter Analysis: This ETF is the purest play on China’s hard-tech ambitions. Semiconductor foundries like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and semiconductor equipment makers like Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) were the primary multi-bagger catalysts. As China successfully developed workarounds to Western sanctions and scaled up legacy node chip production, these counters experienced explosive multiple expansion. The sheer velocity of the capital inflows into these strategic, state-backed technology counters is what drove this ETF to its market-leading, triple-digit return.
Similar players like CATL, Zhongji Innolight and Eoptolink also help buoyed SCY’s performances, achieving a 1-bagger milestone as an ETF.
The Verdict: Look East for Alpha
The sheer magnitude of these returns—ranging from 54% to over 109%—shatters the prevailing retail narrative that all meaningful equity growth is currently confined to the US Nasdaq or the “Magnificent Seven.”
The verdict is clear: massive alpha is currently being generated in the East. However, this is not a homogeneous “Asia rising” story. These five ETFs represent highly specific, hyper-targeted structural megatrends:
- The “China Plus One” manufacturing shift (Vietnam).
- The AI Hardware Supercycle (Taiwanese foundries and Chinese optoelectronics).
- The Green Energy Monopoly (Chinese EV and battery supply chains).
- The State-Sponsored Tech Autonomy mandate (Chinese semiconductors).
Closing Thoughts: How to Position Moving Forward
For the retail investor, the core takeaway is the utility of the Singapore Exchange itself. You do not need to navigate the complexities of opening direct brokerage accounts in Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, or Mumbai to capture this explosive growth. These SGX-listed ETFs provide highly liquid, accessible, and regulated proxies to the most aggressive growth engines on the planet.
However, investors must exercise strict capital discipline. Assets that can surge 100% in a year possess inherently high beta and are susceptible to equally violent drawdowns—especially those exposed to US-China geopolitical crosshairs.
Moving forward, investors should view these ETFs not as core, “sleep-well-at-night” foundational holdings, but as highly potent satellite allocations. By tactically allocating 10% to 20% of a portfolio into these specific themes, investors can dramatically boost their overall yield and capture the next leg of the Asian structural supercycle without over-leveraging their underlying risk.
p.s. Markets reward momentum. Learn how we identify strong trending stocks and momentum opportunities at our upcoming Turbo Stock Trading webinar. Register now to reserve your spot.
