In this episode, our host and Head of Research, Thilan Wickramasinghe, discusses how renewed uncertainty surrounding US-Iran peace negotiations is weighing on global sentiment, even as Singapore’s 1Q results season continues to point toward resilient corporate fundamentals and strong earnings expectations. He outlines the key themes emerging across the banking sector, including rising contributions from wealth management, trading income and AI-driven productivity gains.

We begin with our SMIDs and Technology Analyst, Jarick Seet, who explains why improving expectations across the Singapore technology sector continue supporting upside for selected names despite recent share price strength. He discusses Maybank’s higher target prices for Frencken and Venture following recent developments, before sharing what could further catalyse Addvalue Technologies.

Thilan then discusses Maybank’s upgrade of OCBC Bank to BUY, highlighting stronger non-interest income growth, accelerating wealth inflows and improving execution under the bank’s “Next Frontier” strategy. He also reviews the broader trends shaping Singapore banks this earnings season, including resilience in asset quality, stronger capital markets activity and growing AI deployment across banking platforms.

Finally, our Analyst, Xuan Hao Toh, shares key takeaways from Maybank’s recent corporate day, including management commentary from AEM and construction-related names Ever Glory and Tiong Woon, before we close with fresh technical ideas from our Chart Guy.