2025 saw a wide divergence in stock performance across the world and across sectors and industries. Some stocks and sectors surged massively while others lagged significantly. Stocks and sectors that did well had themes like AI adoption, commodities rallies, geopolitical shifts, and consumer demand trends.
Equities definitely performed well, with many indices clocking double-digit gains. Outside equities, gold and silver posted strong gains, with silver up more than 140% and gold over 70%, showing that investors had interest beyond traditional stocks.
Here we look at the top 10 performers in the S&P 500 and the Hong Kong market (covering the HIS, HSCEI + HSTech). We also look closer to home at the top 10 performers in the Straits Times Index and with the EQDP a big reason for the overall bullish market at home, we also look at the performance for Non-STI (mid cap space) stocks with a market cap of at least SG$500 million.
1) S&P500 Top 10
Everyone would have expected Palantir to be the top performer this year but Palantir actually comes in at #8. The top 2 performers are SanDisk and Western Digital. Both were once one company, but as of February 2025, they separated into two independent, publicly traded companies. SanDisk focuses on flash memory (SSDs, memory cards, USB drives), while Western Digital focuses on traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions, aiming to leverage each company’s core strengths in different storage technologies.
SanDisk and Western Digital soared in 2025 due to explosive demand for storage driven by AI infrastructure buildouts, coupled with industry supply constraints, solid financials from strategic restructuring (especially SanDisk’s spin-off), new tech like BiCS8, and attractive valuations, making them prime beneficiaries of the tech boom. 3rd, 4th and 9th place, Micron, Seagate and Lam Research also benefited from the same theme.
5th place Robinhood saw revenues increased by 65% YoY in the first 9 months of 2025 as trading took off. In 6th place is a gold miner Newmont which gained from higher gold prices.
In 7th place is Warner Bros which is the target of a potential acquisition. Both Netflix and Paramount are fiercely bidding prices up against each other to put the most lucrative offer on the table.
Rounding up the top 10 is Applovin. The company saw YTD9M25 revenues increase more than 70% due to its AI-driven advertising platform, Axon, driving massive growth in its software segment, which boasts high margins. This AI engine excels at user acquisition and monetization in mobile gaming, with strong network effects from data, and is expanding into new areas like e-commerce, leading to significant revenue surges and profitability, boosted by its inclusion in the S&P 500.
And just looking briefly outside the S&P500, some micro-caps and biotech/tech plays delivered extraordinary returns, sometimes in the hundreds to thousands of percent range (e.g., Regencell Bioscience, Abivax, Sibanye Stillwater, AST SpaceMobile, and others in lists of top performers).
2) Hong Kong Top 10
The outperformers in Hong Kong is a little more varied than the S&P500’s, but also shared some similar themes as the USA. More broadly, Chinese stocks rebounded after years of underperformance due to geopolitical tensions as well as a weak manufacturing economy.
Top on the list, China Hongqiao is one of the world’s largest Aluminium producer and benefited from Aluminium prices increasing 18%.
Next is Horizon Robotics, a recent listing that went public in Oct 2024 and provides advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) solutions for passenger vehicles.
SMIC came in 3rd and is the flagship chip manufacturer in China. Needless to say, it is a strong beneficiary of the current chip trend coupled with very strong regulatory support.
Pop Mart needs no introduction as the craze over their collectibles continue.
The Pharma sector in China is another area worth watching. In 2025, the sector has seen strong product sales, significant licensing deals, robust growth in innovative drug revenues and global potential with innovation and international partnerships.
4 of the top 10 performers are in this sector with Innovent, Hansoh, Sino Pharma and Wuxi Biologics.
Innovent’s stock was recently up significantly due to a major global strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical while Hansoh signed a significant deal (up to $1.45 billion) with Roche for a colorectal cancer drug, boosting investor confidence in its R&D pipeline.
JD Health is up due to strong financial performance, especially revenue growth in late 2025. As part of the JD group, its robust “supply chain + service + technology” ecosystem, and strategic growth in AI-driven healthcare, online drug retail, and partnerships (like with Eli Lilly), all supported by China’s push for digital health. The company’s market position, rapid O2O (online-to-offline) delivery, and integration of AI tools are key drivers, showcasing strong growth momentum and value in the healthcare market.
Chow Tai Fook, as a jeweller is a clear beneficiary of gold prices, with its performance of 90% mirroring the increase in gold prices.
3) STI Top 10
The STI top 10 is a much more varied list, mainly from laggards outperforming, some as a result of corporate actions.
ST Engineering performed strongly in 2025 due to robust demand across its core segments, Defence & Public Security driving record revenues and a high order book. St Engg also did strategic divestments such as the sale of LeeBoy, its US construction equipment manufacturing arm and focused growth in key areas like AI/cyber, all boosting shareholder value and dividends.
DFI bounced off a low base as it announced yet another major strategic plan focusing on profitable growth, a higher 70% dividend payout, and expanding its Health & Beauty and Convenience chains through franchising to boost profits and shareholder returns.
Real estate stocks such as UOL Group, Hongkong Land and City Development all bounced off lows as interest rates fell coupled with robust sales from residential property development as well as strategic initiatives.
Conglomerates such as Jardine Matheson and Keppel both saw its portfolio do well amidst a strong year in Singapore, both economically and from a stock market perspective.
Singtel, Singapore Exchange and DBS rounded up the Top 10. Singtel’s 2025 rally was due to strong earnings from its regional associates in India as well as exceptional gains from partial sale of its Airtel stake and Intouch-Gulf Energy merger. With 2025 the year to remember for the strong performance in the Singapore market, it is a surprise that SGX only delivered a 35% gain. DBS comes in 10th as the bank continues to deliver sterling results amidst its focus on building an ecosystem for the future, with digital solutions boosting efficiency and security.
4) SG non-STI Top 10 (Mid Cap)
This is where the list gets interesting with the EQDP in play. One of the first sectors to move up is the construction industry as Singapore sees construction order books at multi-year highs, with projects ranging from residential property to major infrastructure projects such as the new Terminal 5 at Changi Airport as well as new MRT train lines.
In the Top 10 list, there are 4 construction companies with Soilbuild, a top construction company with a focus on industrial spaces coming in at #1 followed by Hong Leong Asia at #3, one of the biggest building materials company, producing concrete and aggregates. Low Keng Huat at #5 jumped because it was subject to a delisting offer, with the number of delistings in Singapore exceeding listings again this year. Pan-United at #9 is a similar play to Hong Leong Asia due to its role as a major cement player.
Marco Polo Marine is at #2 due to a combination of strong FY2025 results, driven by big one-off impairment reversals, increased ship chartering income from its growing fleet of Commissioning Service Operation Vessels and a strategic pivot towards the lucrative offshore wind sector, signaling bright future growth prospect.
Food Empire at #4 was hit badly in Feb 2022 when the Russia Ukraine Conflict took a turn. Food Empire surprisingly thrived by raising prices, benefiting from a strong ruble and competitors leaving, leading to record profits while diversifying aggressively into India and Southeast Asia with new capacity for potato chips and coffee, and increased market share in its core eastern European markets.
I would say that CSE Global is the pride of the Singapore market this year, despite being #6 in terms of share price performance. CSE Global entered into a partnership with Amazon with Amazon potentially acquiring an 8% stake in CSE through warrants. The partnership is tied to Amazon committing to give CSE up to US$1.5 billion in orders over five years, primarily for data center projects, making CSE a key infrastructure partner for Amazon’s growing AI/data center expansion in Asia. This deal provides CSE with significant revenue streams and strategic alignment. It also transforms the business, moving it from primarily oil & gas to data centre infrastructure, which typically entails major long term contracts.
ValueMax at #7 is Singapore’s leading pawnshop operator and with gold and other metals seeing significant price increase, the company will no doubt continue to perform well.
Yangzijiang Financial Holdings is a surprise at #8, but this was because it bounced from a low base. YZJ Financial’s plan and subsequent execution of spinning off its maritime investment arm into a separately listed entity, Yangzijiang Maritime Development, was a major driver. This move was seen as a way to unlock value, streamline operations, and provide both entities with a sharper strategic focus and direct access to capital markets
Rounding up the top 10 is Propnex as Singapore’s residential property market continues to attract strong interest with the Singapore economy robust and interest rates low.
Closing statements
A strong performance is often easy to explain in hindsight but it is far harder to predict what lies ahead in 2026.
Broadly, there are two approaches. One approach is the trend follower – identifying multi year trends which would continue over the decade. The current belief is that the present opportunity for this lies in Artificial Intelligence, with some believing that we are just entering a supercycle.
The alternative approach is to be a contrarian. For the contrarian, opportunities lies in the worst performing sectors which include Alcoholic Beverages, Consumer staples and Consumer Discretionary as consumer demand weakened which was in part due to the Tariffs. Healthcare (in the USA) also lagged because of regulatory pressures, while Cryptocurrencies underperformed as an asset class.
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