Top 10 Investments added by FSMOne investors in 1Q2025: Began the Trade War has!

In the first quarter of 2025, global markets started experiencing significant volatility, primarily influenced by new trade policies under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump first imposed tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico in early February, citing concerns over illegal immigration and drug trafficking. These tariffs took effect March, after a one-month delay. In response, Canada and Mexico announced retaliatory measures, leading to a significant escalation in trade tensions.

Additionally, the Trump administration increased tariffs on Chinese goods in March as well, further intensifying the trade conflict. These developments mark the early months of 2025 as a period of heightened trade disputes, with March being particularly significant due to the implementation of tariffs affecting major trading partners.​

Our FSMOne analysts have covered the recent global trade war. For more insights on portfolio positioning considering these developments, please refer to the following write-ups

A global trade war is here. Here’s how you can protect your portfolio.

Liberation day tariff: How US equity investors should navigate the impact

As US equities faced substantial declines in the quarter, international markets like Hong Kong and Europe instead showed resilience. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite both ended the quarter in losses while the Hang Seng Index and Euro Stoxx 50 registering gains.

Fixed income investors also sought to stabilise their portfolios early in the year with high quality issuers and investment-grade bonds.

Most Popular Unit Trusts in 1Q2025

In case you are following this quarterly update for the first time, short-duration bond and money market funds are excluded in the top 10 rankings.

As markets remain volatile, investors look to add stability to their portfolios through fixed income and balanced funds. Continuing the trend from the previous quarter, PIMCO Income Fund Admin Cl Inc SGD-H and JPMorgan Investment Funds - Global Income A (icdiv) SGD-H both came in 1^st and 2^nd as investors were attracted to their global income strategy through exposure into quality bonds.

With Bank of Japan maintaining caution considering global economic and trade uncertainty, we anticipate that the margin loan interest rate to remain relatively low. This means our JPY Positive Carry strategy is still relevant. Additionally, Japan has been undergoing corporate governance reforms, with many companies increasing their dividend payouts as part of efforts to return more value to shareholders. As a result, the dividend yield of the fund is expected to remain appealing. Unsurprisingly, JPY dividend-paying funds T. Rowe Price Funds SICAV - Diversified Income Bond Axn JPY and Nikko AM Japan Dividend Equity JPY came in 6^th and 10^th respectively. Sticking to Japan equities, Nikko AM Japan Dividend Equity SGD-H also came in 8^th.

Speculative investors also took opportunity from the volatile market by adding BlackRock Asian High Yield Bond A8 SGD-H to their holdings. As such,  the Asian high yield bond fund climbed 3 places to 3^rd place this quarter.

The drop in US equities did not deter investors from buying more of the Infinity US 500 Stock Index SGD, which finished 9^th. The index fund is widely perceived as one of the most cost-efficient ways to gain exposure into the US market.

With China steadily emerging as the dark horse of 2025, investors were quick to react by investing in the Blackrock China Fund A4 GBP-H, which came in 4^th.

Rounding up the list are global technology fund Blackrock World Technology Fund A2 USD at 5^th and balanced fund Schroder Multi-Asset Revolution A Dis SGD at 7^th. The latter has been a mainstay on the list for several quarters and is investable for both CPF-OA and SA.

Table 1: Top 10 Most Popular Unit Trusts

Rank	Product Name (Unit Trusts)	YTD Return in SGD Terms
1	PIMCO Income Fund Admin Cl Inc SGD-H	0.54%
2	JPMorgan Investment Funds - Global Income A (icdiv) SGD-H	-5.16%
3	Blackrock Asian High Yield Bond A8 SGD-H	-0.98%
4	Blackrock China Fund A4 GBP-H	3.48%
5	Blackrock World Technology Fund A2 USD	-18.50%
6	T. Rowe Price Funds SICAV - Diversified Income Bond Axn JPY	4.08%
7	Schroder Multi-Asset Revolution A Dis SGD	-6.69%
8	Nikko AM Japan Dividend Equity SGD-H	-5.89%
9	Infinity US 500 Stock Index SGD	-12.63%
10	Nikko AM Japan Dividend Equity JPY	-2.16%

Data as of 14^th April 2025

Most Popular ETFs in 1Q2025

Volatile markets tend to present plenty of opportunities for short-term trading and understandably, leveraged and inverse ETFs made up half of our most popular ETFs in 1Q2025. For investors new to such ETFs, we analysed the risks and rewards in this article:

Leveraged and Inverse ETFs: A Powerful Double-Edged Sword.

Amongst them, Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares, GraniteShares 2x Long COIN Daily ETF, Defiance Daily Target 2X Long MSTR ETF, Tradr 2X Short TSLA Daily ETF and Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares ended the quarter 2^nd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th and 10th respectively. These ETFs are designed for short-term trading and are subject to daily rebalancing, which can lead to significant tracking errors over extended periods.

Coming in 1^st is the Lion-OCBC Securities Hang Seng TECH ETF as DeepSeek made waves in December last year by launching a free, open-source large language model, which shook investors’ confidence in the sustainability of demand for AI chips. We outline the trajectory for China’s technology sector in our latest update:

China’s Two Sessions unveil opportunities in technology-centric sectors

US equities, as well as its technology sector, once again proved their attractiveness to our clients as Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust finished 3^rd and 9^th. Dividend paying ETFs also maintained their popularity with NikkoAM-StraitsTrading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF finishing 7^th and SPDR® Straits Times Index ETF taking 8^th.

Table 2: Top 10 Most Popular ETFs

Rank	Product Name (ETFs)	YTD Return in SGD Terms
1	Lion-OCBC Securities Hang Seng TECH ETF (SGX:HST)	6.35%
2	Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (NYSE:SOXL)	-63.33%
3	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO)	-11.45%
4	GraniteShares 2x Long COIN Daily ETF (NASDAQ:CONL)	-62.33%
5	Defiance Daily Target 2X Long MSTR ETF (NASDAQ:MSTX)	-41.97%
6	Tradr 2X Short TSLA Daily ETF (NASDAQ:TSLQ)	32.80%
7	NikkoAM-StraitsTrading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF (SGX:CFA)	-3.39%
8	SPDR® Straits Times Index ETF (SGX:ES3)	-6.60%
9	Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ)	-13.80%
10	Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares (NASDAQ:TSLL)	-70.23%

Data as of 14^th April 2025

Most Popular Stocks in 1Q2025

The crown jewel of SGX, DBS Group Holdings Ltd snatched 1^st place back from electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, which finished 3^rd place this quarter. The bank’s profit and share price both hit record high in what could be outgoing CEO Piyush Gupta’s parting gift to shareholders.

Together with DBS Group, Singapore banks Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) both also recorded record profits in 2024. Income investors anticipated attractive dividends and quickly invested in all 3 local banks. As a result, OCBC came in 5^th while UOB came in 7^th on the list.

While S-REITs remain in persistent worry over President Trump’s tariffs, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) emerged as the bright spark with an impressive 11% share price gain year-to-date. CICT came in 8^th in 1Q2025.

As the unveiling of DeepSeek caused a major US technology stocks selloff in late January, NVIDIA Corp slipped 1 place to 4^th for the quarter. Despite the drop in market value, many investors still believe in the company’s ability to drive artificial intelligence (AI) development.

AppLovin Corp also dropped 1 place to 10^th following its stellar performance in the previous quarter. In recent weeks, AppLovin has emerged as a potential buyer for TikTok along with Amazon.

Another US technology stock that investors are paying close attention to in the AI space is Palantir Technologies Inc, which came in 9^th. The company was added to the NASDAQ 100 index late last year after relisting from NYSE to NASDAQ.

Completing the list are 2 SGX growth drivers: shipbuilding conglomerate Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) Ltd came in 2^nd and wealth management platform iFAST Corp Ltd, which came in 6^th.

Table 3: Top 10 Most Popular Stocks

Rank	Product Name (Stocks)	Dividend Yield (Trailing 12 Months)
1	DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX:D05)	5.82%
2	Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) Ltd (SGX:BS6)	-
3	Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)	-
4	NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)	0.04%
5	iFAST Corp Ltd (SGX:AIY)	0.92%
6	Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (SGX:O39)	5.73%
7	United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX:U11)	5.33%
8	CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (SGX:C38U)	5.33%
9	Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR)	-
10	AppLovin Corp (NASDAQ:APP)	-

Data as of 14^th April 2025

Most Popular Bonds in 1Q2025

Carrying on the momentum from Q4 last year, interest rate volatility further pushed bond investors to secure yields over the long period. As a result, previous issues ARASP 5.650% Perpetual Corp (SGD), BACR 8.300% Perpetual Corp (SGD), ACAFP 6.700% Perpetual Corp (USD) and IFASTC 4.328% 11Jun2029 Corp (SGD) made it to 1^st, 5^th, 6^th and 10^th in 1Q2025.

Since ESR Cayman completed the acquisition of ARA Asset Management in 2022, ARASP 5.650% Perpetual Corp (SGD) has been admitted into the books of the Hong Kong real asset fund manager. When combined, they are Asia Pacific's biggest real asset fund manager and the world's third-largest listed real estate asset manager. Despite ESR reporting a loss for FY24, we continue to view ESR as a stable issuer, considering a majority of the losses had been contributed by non-cash impairment losses owing to property revaluation.

1Q2025 also saw the launch of Bondsupermart Live, a centralised bond marketplace where orders are matched dynamically with other investors, market makers, and counterparties, on FSMOne. With only United States Treasuries available initially, IFASTC 4.328% 11Jun2029 Corp (SGD) has since been added. Having reduced the processing fee for this bond to just 0.1% on Bondsupermart Live, it comes as little surprise the bond managed to squeeze into the top ten.

There were also quite a few new bonds launched this quarter as major financial institutions HSBC, BPCE and Credit Agricole all issued new SGD bonds. HSBC 5.000% Perpetual Corp (SGD) came in 2^nd on the list while BPCEGP 4.600% 21Jan2035 Corp (SGD) and ACAFP 4.250% 14Jan2035 Corp (SGD) came in 4^th and 8^th.

Other than financial institutions, established real estate players Perennial Holdings, GuocoLand and Lendlease also issued new debt with PREHSP 5.750% 07Apr2028 Corp (SGD) particularly in demand due to its attractive coupon. The privatised REIT manager’s new bond came in 3^rd in ranking. Issued in the same month of February, GUOLSP 4.350% Perpetual Corp (SGD) and LREIT 4.750% Perpetual Corp (SGD)  came in 7^th and 9^th respectively.

Rounding out the list at 5^th place is additional tier 1 (AT1) bond BACR 8.300% Perpetual Corp (SGD) issued by British lender Barclays.

Table 4: Top 10 Most Popular Bonds

Rank	Product Name (Bonds)	Indicative Yield-to-Worst
1	ARASP 5.650% Perpetual Corp (SGD)	7.338%
2	HSBC 5.000% Perpetual Corp (SGD)	4.885%
3	PREHSP 5.750% 07Apr2028 Corp (SGD)	5.473%
4	BPCEGP 4.600% 21Jan2035 Corp (SGD)	4.166%
5	BACR 8.300% Perpetual Corp (SGD)	4.980%
6	ACAFP 6.700% Perpetual Corp (USD)	7.252%
7	GUOLSP 4.350% Perpetual Corp (SGD)	4.376%
8	ACAFP 4.250% 14Jan2035 Corp (SGD)	3.997%
9	LREIT 4.750% Perpetual Corp (SGD)	4.228%
10	IFASTC 4.328% 11Jun2029 Corp (SGD)	3.518%

Data as of 14^th April 2025

The trade tariffs imposed by the US have sent shockwaves through global markets. With China not looking to back down, investors are braced for a roller coaster ride in 2025. Amidst the market noise, investors who can stomach volatility have seized the opportunity to load up high quality stocks and sectors with huge discounts off previous high valuations.

On the other hand, money market funds and short duration bonds offer a haven for investors with lower risk appetite. Such instruments not only offer stability, but also interest yields more attractive than leaving the cash in your bank account.

Keen to know which instruments are suitable for your risk profile? Feel free to reach out to our friendly and professional advisory team at advisory@fundsupermart.com.