04/07/2026
Sharing is caring. Curated articles for easy reading. Happy Weekends!
*10X Articles:*
1. *Tech stocks could surpass S-Reits on iEdge Singapore Next 50 index if growth momentum keeps up: SGX*
2. *Disciplinary records of property agents now easier to view on updated CEA register*
3. *So, you want to be a solopreneur. AI helps but here’s what you need to know*
4. *Too many people are shockingly bad at prioritisation*
5. *The secret to healthy ageing isn’t keeping busy. It’s finding your ‘rhythm’*
6. *Using ex-company’s data for new job: Woman sued for keeping work e-mails in own account*
7. *Silent kingmakers: Market index providers are driving public investors into SpaceX and Big AI*
8. *Resale condos staying on market longer as buyers take their time, sellers hold firm on prices*
9. *No transaction fees and third-party apps: S’pore travellers cheer expanded payment options in China*
10. *China has a powerful new oil price weapon*
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https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/tech-stocks-could-surpass-s-reits-iedge-singapore-next-50-index-if-growth-momentum-keeps-sgx
*Tech stocks could surpass S-Reits on iEdge Singapore Next 50 index if growth momentum keeps up: SGX*
_The growth in technology’s footprint is happening at the expense of defensive, income-oriented segments_
SINGAPORE] The technology sector could soon overtake Singapore real estate investment trusts (S-Reits) as the dominant force in the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index if its current growth momentum is sustained, an SGX Market Update reported on Wednesday (Jun 10).
The report said: “If the technology sector sustains its early-year momentum, its influence within the index could surpass S-Reits, marking a shift from income‐led exposure towards more growth and global flow‐driven sectors.”
The assessment follows the local bourse’s June review, which added four constituents and omitted four others. The changes are effective Jun 22.
The four constituents added were semiconductor test provider AEM Holdings : AWX +0.39%, disposable glove manufacturer Top Glove : BVA -3.92%, the recently debuted UI Boustead Reit : UIBU 0% and hardware distributor PC Partner Group : PCT -1.18%.
They displaced Singapore Post : S08 0%, Digital Core Reit : DCRU 0%, Wee Hur Holdings : E3B -1.47% and China Sunsine Chemical Holdings : QES 0%. These four lost their spots on the index because the incoming constituents had higher market capitalisations.
“The four inclusions reflect strong market activity and positioning across global supply chains spanning semiconductor testing, healthcare exports, industrial logistics and high‐end hardware distribution,” SGX Research said.
AEM Holdings, driven by artificial intelligence-led test demand, saw its 2026 year-to-date average daily trading value (ADT) through Jun 9 rise to S$34.7 million, up from S$4.05 million in the corresponding period in 2025.
PC Partner clocked a 35-times increase in its year-to-date ADT to S$4.6 million.
Liquidity framework favours technology
While the standard index tracks free-float market capitalisation, the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Liquidity Weighted Index (Next 50 LW) tilts individual stock weights towards actively traded counters based on six-month median daily traded value.
Technology has emerged as the primary beneficiary of this liquidity-weighted framework.
Based on indicative weights as at May 29, the technology sector’s combined weight stood at 26.2 per cent in the Next 50 LW index, against 15.8 per cent in the standard free-float version.
Five of the seven largest individual weights in the index as of May 29 were from the technology sector: AEM Holdings, iFast Corporation : AIY -0.33%, UMS Integration : 558 -2.52%, Frencken Group : E28 -0.65% and CSE Global : 544 -2.16%.
This trend has also emerged in the Next 50 Reserve List, where three of the 10 reserve stocks – Nanofilm Technologies International : MZH -3.05%, Addvalue Technologies : A31 -2.98% and Aztech Global : 8AZ -3.26% – are from the tech sector.
Weight reductions in income sectors
The expansion of technology’s footprint is occurring at the expense of defensive, income-oriented segments.
In the liquidity-weighted index, the allocation for S-Reits shrank to 29.7 per cent from 35.9 per cent in the standard index.
Similar declines took place in telecommunications, which fell from 6 to 2.9 per cent, and utilities, which dipped from 4.5 to 1.9 per cent.
In the broader mid-cap universe, overall trading activity accelerated, with the combined ADT of the index’s remaining 45 constituents rising to S$298 million for 2026 up to Jun 9; over the same period in 2025, the figure was S$121 million.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/disciplinary-records-of-property-agents-agencies-now-easier-to-view-through-updated-cea-register
*Disciplinary records of property agents now easier to view on updated CEA register*
SINGAPORE – Those looking to buy, sell or rent a property can now look up the track records of property agents and agencies before signing on the dotted line.
An update to the Council for Estate Agencies’ (CEA) public register allows viewers to easily see enforcement actions taken against agents in the past three years.
These include letters of censure for less serious breaches, disciplinary committee actions and court prosecutions from 2023 to 2025.
In an article published on its website on June 10, CEA’s executive director Chan Khar Liang said the move reflects an effort to raise the professionalism of the real estate agency industry and empower consumers.
Chan added that consumers should check an agent’s record before engaging their services, and urged agencies to continue strengthening the supervision of their agents.
CEA’s public register showed the number of breaches has gone up in recent years.
There were 82 enforcement actions taken against agents from nine agencies in 2025.
This is up from 61 actions against agents from 10 agencies in 2024, and 58 against agents from 10 agencies in 2023.
Previously, consumers could only search for enforcement information on individual agents by keying in the agent’s name, contact number or registration number.
Now, they can also see a full list of the number and type of enforcement actions taken against agents from each property agency, and the total number of agents registered with the agency in the past three years.
Such information allows consumers to compare the number of enforcement actions taken against property agents across agencies of different sizes, noted CEA.
The latest enforcement statistics showed that ERA Realty Network – the second-largest real estate agency here – had 31 enforcement actions taken against its agents in 2025.
PropNex Realty, the largest, had 28 enforcement actions against its agents. Huttons Asia posted nine cases, OrangeTee & Tie had five cases and Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI) had four.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/so-you-want-to-be-a-solopreneur-ai-helps-but-heres-what-you-need-to-know
*So, you want to be a solopreneur. AI helps but here’s what you need to know*
_Agentic AI can make it easier to start a business and offers a new career pathway._
It seems almost too good to be true: entire companies with healthy revenue streams and all of one headcount who is the CEO, finance, marketing and procurement departments combined, plus the intern thrown in too. Such one-person companies, also known as solopreneurs, seem to have emerged with a ferocity in the age of agentic AI.
This trend is rising in China, which saw the “raising a lobster” craze early in 2026 when people rushed to install the open-source agentic AI platform OpenClaw for automating tasks such as drafting reports, organising e-mails and booking flights. Leveraging such artificial intelligence tools, young people in China are increasingly launching AI-powered “one-person companies” (OPCs) as the technology can now handle many business functions, making it far easier for individuals to operate alone.
Besides ease of operations, these solopreneurs’ motivations for founding these companies are fuelled, if not accelerated, by growing concerns over age discrimination and limited job prospects.
Local governments are far from oblivious to this trend and, in fact, actively support it. Suzhou plans to develop over 10,000 OPC entrepreneurs by 2028 with major investment support, while Chengdu is offering subsidies for graduates to start AI-driven solo businesses.
Municipal governments across China are introducing such policies, even adopting the English acronym “OPC” in official policy language, an uncommon practice in Chinese government communications. Analysts see these moves as a low-cost strategy to address high youth unemployment in the country, particularly among young adults.
In India, where youth unemployment is also a pressing concern, AI can be both a serious threat and potential relief. AI certainly poses a challenge to India’s US$300 billion (S$387 billion) outsourcing industry, which employs millions of people. Shares in Indian IT firms plunged when Anthropic launched its new suite of professional AI tools in February.
With the traditional backroom process outsourcing model under threat, OPCs have been identified by business analysts as a critical growth sector where freelancers, content creators and consultants have progressively transitioned from performing part-time gig work to becoming full-time business owners.
Seen as nimble micro-enterprises that create self-employment while addressing niche markets, India’s solopreneurs are remaking themselves into “agentic founders” by exploiting autonomous AI agents for marketing, operations and coding needs. By taking advantage of these AI tools, solopreneurs can run their business through creating a “Digital Twin” of a traditional team.
In Singapore, sole proprietorships and partnerships are the primary legal vehicle for solopreneurs, freelancers, independent consultants and micro-entrepreneurs operating in the formal economy.
Data from ACRA indicates that 2025 saw 18,199 new sole proprietorship registrations, a new annual high since 2021 and a 2.6 per cent increase from 2024, suggesting that there is renewed momentum in the solopreneur segment after post-pandemic normalisation. However, it is unclear at this stage if this rise can be attributed to rising AI adoption.
Going solo is great, but can it scale?
The virtues of solopreneurship are striking. One-person businesses offer several advantages, including full autonomy over decisions and profits, allowing founders to move quickly and adapt easily. They also operate with much lower costs, since there is little need for large offices, staff or heavy overheads. Such ventures also provide greater flexibility in terms of work location and schedule, making them attractive for those seeking superior work-life balance.
Administrative tasks such as tax filing are often simpler as well, particularly in places like Singapore where solo business income can be filed through personal tax systems. Finally, solopreneurs are often able to deliver more personalised and authentic customer service due to their direct engagement with clients, helping build stronger trust and loyalty.
Primarily, solopreneurship is suited to knowledge work such as market research, content creation and even sales and distribution.
In early April, The New York Times reported that one Matthew Gallagher had built his company Medvi, a telehealth provider of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, in just two months. Spending only US$20,000 and with the help of a range of AI tools, he single-handedly took care of coding, marketing, customer service and business analytics.
His start-up grew quickly, reaching 1,300 customers within two months and generating US$401 million in sales in 2025. It was only after his first year of operation as an OPC that he hired his brother Elliot as his sole employee. Medvi is now projected to hit US$1.8 billion in sales this year.
Medvi’s resounding success is an extreme example of survivorship bias. Gallagher may have triumphed as a solopreneur, and gloriously at that, but we cannot discount the possibility that many others attempted what he did but either failed or could not manage more than modest takings.
Indeed, experienced founders agree that you can eke out a living on your own steam, but if you want to scale your business, staying as a solo operation is simply untenable. The stress of managing all aspects of the business, even with the aid of automation, can overwhelm and lead to burnout.
As Pranav Krishnan, founder of environmental media platform EcoCupid notes: “When you (as the founder) become the business, the boundary between work and personal life erodes quickly, making burnout a persistent and underestimated risk.”
Solopreneurs will also face the hard realities of commercialisation bottlenecks from trying to scale or distribute alone. Indeed, investor hesitation persists where venture capitalists view solo-founder teams as risky investments.
Above all is the feeling of isolation. Even as the joys of solitude and liberty from managing divergent views of co-founders can be blissful, the strain of having no one to share your burdens with can compound over time. There is a fabled 4am friend that start-up founders recommend cultivating – these are the trusted confidants whom you can reliably turn to for support, advice or just a listening ear when all feels hopeless and bleak. This phenomenon speaks to the very real challenges of founding and running your own business that are not for the faint-hearted.
ChaseFlow, helmed by solopreneur Arnaud Rubeck, is an AI-native fintech start-up from the Singapore Management University Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s Business Innovations Generator (BIG) incubation programme. Reflecting on the realities of building an AI-enabled company on his own steam, Rubeck observes that AI does not eliminate the difficulty of entrepreneurship so much as “remove the excuses”.
He notes that while a single founder can now execute work that once required an entire team, the bottleneck has shifted from ex*****on to prioritisation and decision-making. Emotional resilience and the discipline to remain focused amid an abundance of possibilities are his main challenges. “AI increases speed, but it also increases the surface area of distraction,” he muses. Rubeck says he mitigates such trials by being extremely outcome-oriented.
Boosting solopreneurs
Returning to the example of Medvi, a deeper look at its growth journey will illuminate another significant limitation of solopreneurship – expertise gaps.
The company has faced legal and regulatory scrutiny over its marketing practices. In February, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning over allegedly misleading claims on a Medvi-affiliated website that implied its drugs were FDA-approved when they were not.
The company said the content was removed after the warning. It had also marketed its products using AI-generated before-and-after photos of consumers which were tantamount to false claims. More recently, Medvi was hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit in California accusing it of violating anti-spam laws by using deceptive e-mail practices to bypass spam filters.
The Medvi lesson draws in stark relief how one-person businesses are ultimately constrained by the knowledge and competencies of the solopreneur.
While Gallagher might have had prior expertise in programming and marketing, he likely lacked the requisite background in governance, especially compliance requirements for medical products and services, a highly specialised and tightly regulated market. Indeed, he revealed to The New York Times that he designed Medvi as a “marketing layer” while outsourcing regulated infrastructure – such as medical professionals, prescriptions, pharmacies and medical licensing – to third-party telehealth compliance platforms like CareValidate and OpenLoop Health.
The lack of a 360-degree view is, in fact, where start-up incubation programmes can play a critical supporting role. At SMU’s BIG incubator, for example, founders are connected to an extensive network of mentors (typically former founders or C-suite leaders), enterprise partners and investor connections.
Regular topical clinics give founders access to practitioners who have navigated the same terrain and faced similar struggles. Curated introductions to potential customers and investors are also facilitated.
Other structured programme touchpoints, from pitching sessions to go-to-market workshops, help founders stress-test their assumptions and sharpen their approach before going to market. The goal is not just to surface these needs, but to close the gap between where founders are and where they need to be.
When all is said and done, therefore, solopreneurship in the current era of agentic AI – where one can rapidly take brainwaves through ideation, prototyping, marketing and lead generation, through to ex*****on and fulfilment – does provide an excellent taster for running a business.
With the prospects of entry-level jobs diminishing and graduates seeking alternative employment, solopreneurship may well offer a novel career development pathway.
Some speculate that it could even become the future of work, where individuals leverage AI tools to ease into entrepreneurship when starting a business had previously seemed too daunting. With traditional career pathways much less certain than before, AI-powered solopreneurship could perhaps be that gentle on-ramp overcoming the purported Singaporean aversion to the entrepreneurial journey.
Lim Sun Sun is vice-president, partnerships and engagement, at the Singapore Management University, and Lee Kong Chian professor of communication and technology at its College of Integrative Studies. Her latest book is Humanising Technology: Reflections On Design, Ethics And Inclusion.
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https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/too-many-people-are-shockingly-bad-prioritisation
*Too many people are shockingly bad at prioritisation*
_Choosing where to focus is among the most important skills_
WORK is a series of decisions about what to prioritise. Occasionally, events set the agenda: When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world in 2020, for example, it was pretty obvious which problems firms had to focus on.
But, normally, managers must weigh up for themselves how to allocate capital, decide which initiatives to concentrate on and work out which numbers matter most. Product teams have to choose which features to work on first. Sales teams must decide which customers to focus on.
And day by day, hour by hour, individuals have to work out how to spend their next chunk of time.
It is a shame, then, that people are often very bad at setting priorities. Individuals seem to be so motivated by achieving goals of any kind that they find it hard to abandon them.
In one lab experiment, Timothy Ballard of the University of Queensland and his co-authors asked participants to pursue two competing goals, and varied the monetary rewards on offer.
Even in cases where the reward for achieving one goal was the same as achieving both (and pursuing both made it more likely that neither would be attained), participants tried to get both done.
When people have to make a choice about what to do next, they often pick the thing that seems achievable, even if that is not in their interests.
A paper by Moty Amar of the Ono Academic College and his co-authors found that indebted consumers prioritised paying off small debts ahead of larger debts with higher interest rates. A tangible sense of progress was more important to them than the rational choice.
This kind of behaviour is observable in offices, too. Being the 400th person to review a document adds nothing of value, but at least you can go home with some sort of achievement to your name.
A systemic problem
Organisations, or rather the people who run them, are not necessarily much better.
Some bosses regard everything they ask for as a priority; even if they don’t, their employees may behave as though nothing matters more.
Many firms accumulate so many priorities that they suffer the “peanut-butter problem” of attention and resources being spread too thinly across all of them.
When Niels Christiansen, chief executive of Lego, took charge of the toymaker, he found lots of examples of this. “We had 100 key enterprise risks. How can you look after 100 different risks without being risk-averse on everything you do?”
All sorts of frameworks exist to enable better prioritisation.
The Eisenhower Matrix is a classic time-management technique for individuals, which involves categorising tasks into quadrants.
An urgent and important task belongs at the top of the queue. An important and non-urgent task is the sort that you need to make time for.
If you are doing non-urgent and unimportant tasks, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
The Action-Priority Matrix is another way of dividing tasks into quadrants, this time based on impact and effort.
Product teams often use a scoring model called Rice (reach, impact, confidence and effort). MoSCoW is a framework for teams to distinguish between must-have, should-have, could-have and won’t-have features.
Google pioneered the 70:20:10 rule for how to allocate resources to innovation: 70 per cent on the core business, 20 per cent on adjacent activities and 10 per cent on totally new ideas.
(If the thought of choosing which prioritisation framework to prioritise paralyses you, just choose one at random.)
Confusion from the top
Establishing what matters is not enough, however. If you are setting priorities for a team, you then need to communicate them properly.
In 2017, Donald Sull of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his co-authors asked senior executives at 124 organisations to recite their company’s strategic priorities. They found that in the typical company, only about half of its leaders agreed on what these were.
When you prioritise a new thing, you also need to deprioritise an existing one.
In their book The Octopus Organisation, Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner, two Amazon executives, recommend having explicit rules for cancelling initiatives.
They give the example of projects that have explicit “go/kill” decision points, and of software projects with “kill criteria” such as team attrition rates or time commitments that exceed a certain threshold.
The language is excessively martial, but the sentiment is absolutely right. Effective prioritisation means choosing, communicating and stopping. Henceforth to be known as CaraCaS. ©️2026 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved
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https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-secret-to-healthy-ageing-isnt-keeping-busy-its-finding-your-rhythm
*The secret to healthy ageing isn’t keeping busy. It’s finding your ‘rhythm’*
_Building sustained habits over time – periods of meaningful challenge, followed by intentional rest – matters more than a full calendar._
Priya is a classic go-getter at the age of 68. Even in retirement, she keeps herself constantly occupied with housework, errands, dancing classes, volunteering and even an online course. Her children joke that she can’t “keep still”.
Then there’s her good friend, Jason. At 70, he prefers a slower rhythm: long naps, reading, gardening and occasional coffee dates. He passes his days retreating from the world, enjoying a more measured pace – a well-earned reward after decades of work.
Which of these friends is ageing better, at a biological level? The answer may be surprising – neither.
Life expectancy in Singapore has risen dramatically from about 65 years in the 1960s to over 83 years today, and continues to climb. Against this backdrop, much has been said about the need to keep ourselves occupied to guard against the natural physical and cognitive decline that comes with age.
After all, doesn’t keeping busy keep you young? Not necessarily.
Age is not just a number
We often speak of age as a single number. But there are two distinct concepts: Chronological age is the number of years lived, and biological age reflects how well our cells are functioning. While chronological ageing follows a strict formula – every passing year adds an increment – biological ageing is more dynamic.
Two people of the same chronological age can show surprisingly different biological ageing trajectories. A recent study from the Yale School of Public Health, tracking more than 11,000 adults over 65 in the United States, found that nearly half showed marked improvements in physical or cognitive function after a decade – challenging the common assumption that ageing inevitably means decline.
So, what explains whether an individual will improve or decline, or maintain his level of function over time?
Genetics plays a part. But so do our daily routines.
Imagine a bucket that’s collecting water throughout your life. Each stressor, whether illness, a looming deadline or financial pressure, adds a trickle. The water level represents your “allostatic load”. It’s the cumulative wear and tear on your body from stress, both physical and psychological.
When it overfills, that’s known as allostatic overload. And if it’s not “emptied”, the body remains in a prolonged state of strain, without enough room for our cells to recover. Cells that can’t repair themselves accumulate damage, accelerating the ageing process.
An empty bucket is just as harmful. This is allostatic underload. Without enough physical, cognitive or social stimulation, our cells weaken from underuse.
Priya is engaged, connected and active – all of which support healthy ageing. But without enough rest, she is at risk of overload. Jason’s prioritising of rest and recovery is also beneficial for healthy ageing. But without enough stimulation, his body will gradually become weaker, also accelerating ageing.
Rhythm and meaningful challenge
The key to healthy ageing lies in setting the right “rhythm”. It’s about building sustained habits over time – an extended period of faster-paced, challenging activity, followed by a period of slower, intentional rest.
By design, buckets are meant to be filled, then emptied. Stay too full for too long, and they strain under pressure. Remain empty for too long, and the sides can become brittle and crack.
Our bodies are the same. When our cells experience a healthy amount of challenge followed by sufficient recovery time, they grow stronger. Meaningful challenge paired with intentional rest helps to build our physiological reserve. This refers to the body’s “stores” – a little extra in the tank – that help us bounce back more quickly from illness, injury and life’s inevitable bumps. This surplus gives our cells the room to repair and replenish, rather than accumulate damage.
Meaningful challenge could look different for everyone and does not require a relentless schedule. Some might find purpose and stimulation in work, volunteering, rock climbing or learning a new skill. Others may gain the same benefits from solving puzzles or gardening.
Intentional rest, on the other hand, simply means carving out pockets of time free from constant demands and stimulation, whether you prefer leisurely walks, reading or spending time with family and friends. Rest is not about doing nothing entirely, but about allowing the body and mind enough space to recover.
So, how long should these periods of rest and meaningful challenge be?
In the context of doing voluntary work, research from the Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) at Duke-NUS Medical School highlights how volunteering can boost quality of life for older adults, particularly when it offers a sense of purpose and structure without becoming an obligation.
A global review suggests that two or three hours of volunteering a week seems to be the “sweet spot” for building physiological reserve, while more than 10 hours can negate the physiological benefits.
While Priya and Jason have contrasting rhythms, both can benefit from making small changes to their routines to slow down biological ageing. For Priya, intentionally stepping back from some activities and building in more rest periods in her day would help lower her allostatic load.
Meanwhile, Jason can add more meaningful stimulation, like joining a weekly interest group or volunteering in his neighbourhood, to prevent his cells from weakening.
Of course, changing routines may not be possible for everyone. Work, caregiving and financial responsibilities sometimes cannot be paused.
Yet, the science is encouraging. A single month or year, or season in life, will not define your overall trajectory. It’s the sustained rhythm over time that counts, and even small shifts can have a surprisingly big impact.
For example, one UK-based study found that an intentional break – in the form of a 10-minute walk – in the middle of the day reduces the risk of premature death by about 15 per cent.
The dose is small, but the cumulative effect over years adds up to meaningful biological benefits.
Finally, ageing is shaped not only by what we do. Our mindset and how we think about growing older are also critical, as the Yale study shows. Older adults with more positive beliefs about ageing were more likely to show gains in cognition and mobility over time, even when factors such as education, chronic disease and depression were considered.
CARE’s own research supports this. When we tracked 3,495 Singaporeans aged 60 and older for up to six years, we found that personal mastery – having a strong sense of control over one’s life – emerged as a key factor in longevity. Ultimately, older Singaporeans with high personal mastery lived longer and spent more of their remaining years free from health difficulties, compared with those with low personal mastery.
Older adults who see ageing as a time for growth, contribution and enjoyment are more likely to remain socially, physically and cognitively active, balanced by intentional rest. But those who internalise negative stereotypes about ageing – believing that decline is inevitable – can risk withdrawing from life.
Rethinking ageing in terms of ‘rhythm’
In Singapore, a nation built on hard work, productivity and the trademark “kiasu” drive, the ideas of keeping busy and “active ageing” are particularly resonant. But remaining active is only part of the picture.
When did you last feel genuinely rested or genuinely challenged? If you can’t remember, your rhythm needs a tweak. The calendar shows how many years have passed, but it’s your rhythm and mindset that shape the years to come.
Lia Troeung is a senior research fellow and Sumithra Devi Suppiah is a senior research associate from the Centre for Ageing Research and Education at Duke-NUS Medical School.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/using-company-data-for-new-job-woman-sued-for-keeping-work-e-mails-in-own-account
*Using ex-company’s data for new job: Woman sued for keeping work e-mails in own account*
SINGAPORE – Forwarding sensitive business data to your personal e-mail account is a no-no and can land you in big trouble, especially if you have plans to leave your company.
This was what a senior employee who resigned to join a competitor found out when her former employer successfully sued her for various misdeeds, including conspiring to divert business away from her company while she was still an employee, and for acting against its interests.
People in the habit of forwarding work-related e-mails to their own accounts for various reasons may not be aware that most companies have clear policies that prohibit such conduct.
Doing this may not land you on the chopping block immediately but such misdeeds can be detected if your employer conducts a check.
Such evidence usually provides good grounds to sue employees who leave to join competitors, especially when the forwarded e-mails contain business data.
In this case, the senior vice-president of an insurance broker not only forwarded business e-mails to her own account, but was also caught dealing with her company’s competitor while still being employed.
Ironically, she was exposed not because of an e-mail she sent, but because of one sent by her junior male employee who had left earlier to join the same competitor.
The employee forwarded an e-mail containing the competitor’s business data to the woman’s personal account, but for some undisclosed reason, she forwarded this e-mail to her husband’s account.
When the husband saw that e-mail, he forwarded it to her work e-mail account. This led to the discovery of the digital trail, which enabled her former company to sue her, her subordinate and her new employer.
High Court Judge Mohamed Faizal noted that while employment disputes often involve business diversion, the customers can always choose to deal with the parties that they prefer.
But the freedom of client choice does not confer a freedom on employees to “quietly orchestrate transitions behind the scenes” and ignore reasonable employment provisions that bar them from working with competitors for a certain period.
“The evidence before me paints a troubling picture – a pattern of calculated circumvention by individuals who, while still formally employed by one company, were actively furthering the interests of another,” said the judge, who ruled in favour of the former employer.
Here are three important findings from the court that all employees should know.
The risk of forwarding business e-mails
When companies make important internal announcements via e-mails, such documents are usually encrypted to prevent copying or forwarding, to lower the risk of unauthorised sharing.
Of course, this will not stop employees from taking photographs of those e-mails if they still choose to leak such information through their social media channels.
Doing this puts their jobs at risk because most employment contracts contain specific terms that prohibit the unauthorised sharing or usage of corporate information, no matter how mundane such data can be.
If the information turns out to be confidential business data, those who are caught can be sued and be made to pay huge compensation sums, even after they have left the company.
In this case, the company went after its senior employee after she joined a competitor because she was found to have forwarded a number of e-mails from clients that contained business data to her personal account.
She argued that such documents were just routine communications from clients and that there was nothing sensitive about them. But the court disagreed because the employee wrote the term “highly confidential” in the subject title for one of these e-mails.
Her former company said she forwarded those e-mails to her personal account because she had intended to use such information in her new job. But she argued that she had done that because she wanted to continue working at home and that it was easier to download information from her personal account.
While she could access her corporate e-mails at home using her then employer’s virtual private network (VPN), she claimed that the network often had issues that made it tedious to reply to them.
But the court found that she had raised the VPN problem as an excuse because there was no evidence that she needed those e-mails to work at home. For instance, she had replied to the clients in one of the e-mails in the office before forwarding that same document to her own account.
The court also found that she had forwarded a blank e-mail that contained only attachments of business data that she had saved on her laptop. As she could already access such data on her laptop even when she was offline, there was no reason why she still had to forward these files to her account.
The court found that she had breached confidentiality while she was still an employee, as forwarding the e-mails was “motivated by a desire to retain access to sensitive information that would likely be of value at her next employment”.
Working for others while still employed
There is a difference between having a side hustle to earn more money and working for a competitor while still being employed.
While some employers would probably turn a blind eye to part-time work in an unrelated job outside official work hours, they will draw the line for those who surreptitiously work for other companies as part of the preparatory effort to join them.
In this case, the woman was caught working for her new company as its senior employee while serving out her notice period. When her subordinate, who had left earlier to join the same employer, had problems with his employment pass then, she wrote to appeal to the authorities as if she were already his supervisor.
If a former employee approaches you for help, there is nothing wrong if you give advice or even show how to solve the problem, as any good mentors would do.
But the woman went beyond giving advice and drafted the appeal note herself. This was not even a case of coaching a former colleague to write better because she later forwarded the appeal note directly to the person handling the case in the new company, without even copying the message to her subordinate.
The court found that she was actively working for her new employer in breach of her duties because she was still an employee of her former company then.
Good performance is not an excuse
If you have betrayed your former employer, you cannot try to undo the harm by saying that you have delivered great work in other areas.
In this case, the woman claimed she still worked hard to renew contracts with other clients in her final months at the company.
But the judge noted that the law is concerned not with how hard one works but with how faithfully one acts.
“Diligence is no defence to disloyalty and an employee would therefore not be able to justify a breach of the core obligation of loyalty and fidelity by ostensibly pointing to dedication, however significant, in other areas,” the judge said.
In the end, the court found the woman and her subordinate liable for a series of work-related breaches, in addition to conspiring with their new employer to set up a new competing business.
The damages that both the employees and the new employer would be liable to pay will be assessed in a separate hearing.
So the lesson here is simply this: Be a loyal and good employee until your last day of work so that your employer would miss you more after you leave.
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https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/silent-kingmakers-market-index-providers-are-driving-public-investors-spacex-and-big-ai
*Silent kingmakers: Market index providers are driving public investors into SpaceX and Big AI*
_This may sustain demand for AI hardware powering the best performing Asian markets, and perhaps lift some of the worst laggards too_
[SINGAPORE] There was no apparent shortage of investors eager to pile into SpaceX last week.
The space economy cm artificial intelligence company’s US$75 billion initial public offering was reportedly more than four times subscribed. Its shares ended their first trading session on Friday (Jun 12) at US$160.95 – more than 19.2 per cent above its IPO price of US$135 per share.
With a market capitalisation of US$2.1 trillion, it will probably not be long before SpaceX also finds its way into the portfolios of many investors who are not particularly interested in owning it.
Last month, FTSE Russell and Nasdaq introduced “fast entry” rules that allow large companies to be added to their indices after just five trading days and 15 trading days, respectively.
Meanwhile, MSCI said it will apply its rules for fast-track inclusion for large companies that have been in place since 2007. These rules allow large companies to be added to its indices after 10 trading days.
With companies gaining much larger operational scale and higher valuations than ever before ahead of their public listings, their inclusion in major market indices is being expedited to ensure these benchmarks do not become misaligned with the total investible market.
Yet, the fast-track inclusion of SpaceX – as well as potentially OpenAI and Anthropic, when they list – has sparked concern that funds tracking some major market indices will be forced to allocate billions of dollars to these large companies soon after their richly priced IPOs.
Some index providers have resisted bending their rules for these big companies. Early this month, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it will not shorten the 12-month “seasoning” period of newly listed companies, or waive any existing profitability and public-float requirements based on a company’s size.
The influence that the various index providers may have over the trajectory of SpaceX’s share price in the coming weeks could turn attention to their role as kingmakers in the market, and what that might mean for bourses vying globally for investment flows.
Power of index providers
While SpaceX might be kept aloft by its inclusion in some market indices, the Indonesia market has taken a beating this year at least partly because of pressure from index providers.
In January, MSCI triggered a plunge in Jakarta-listed stocks when it raised concerns about “fundamental investability issues” related to opaque shareholding structures and possible coordinated trading behaviour that might undermine proper price formation.
The index provider froze all additions to its indices for Indonesia, and threatened a downgrade from “emerging” to “frontier” market status if the problems were not addressed.
The authorities in Indonesia responded quickly, announcing enhanced disclosure requirements for shareholdings above 1 per cent, and a plan to double the minimum free float requirement to 15 per cent, among other things.
While this appears to have staved off the dreaded downgrade, MSCI and FTSE Russell have recently culled some prominent Indonesian stocks from their benchmarks, including Barito Renewables Energy, Dian Swastatika Sentosa and GoTo.
Since the beginning of the year, the Jakarta Composite Index has tumbled 30.5 per cent, reflecting doubts about Indonesia’s economic policies and growing domestic unrest as well as concerns about the investability of its market.
Clearly, to engineer a lasting turnaround, Indonesia does not just need better and more coherent economic policies but market reforms that will satisfy the index providers.
Recycling capital in public markets
The weak performance of the Indonesia market stands in sharp contrast to the very strong performance of the Taiwan and South Korea markets.
Since the beginning of the year, the Taiex has climbed 52.5 per cent while the Kospi has soared 92.8 per cent. These gains were the result of very strong AI-driven performance of semiconductor companies that dominate these indices.
Goldman Sachs said in a note last month that it is forecasting earnings growth of 300 per cent for constituents of the Kospi in 2026.
“Korea is benefitting from a supercycle in semiconductor memory, in which record supply shortfalls for memory chips and accelerating demand from hyperscale cloud investment and AI-related compute are pushing memory prices sharply higher,” the research house said.
“Since memory producers carry high operating leverage, those price gains translate into outsized bottom-line growth.”
Goldman Sachs said in the same note that it is forecasting earnings growth of 45 per cent for Taiwan stocks, which is slightly higher than the consensus of 38 per cent.
The expanding earnings of these big Asian chip players are the mirror image of the massive spending by the hyperscalers and generative AI players – which is now being recycled through the public equity market.
Over the past fortnight, Alphabet said it will raise nearly US$85 billion through the issue of new shares, while Meta Platforms was reported to be considering raising “tens of billions of dollars”. SpaceX’s US$75 billion IPO last week could also soon be followed by early investors cashing out billions of dollars more as their lock-ups expire.
The way I see it, the fast-track inclusion of mega-cap stocks in key market indices will support this tide of capital recycling – by forcing passive funds to absorb the shares finding their way into the public market.
More flows to Asian markets?
Worrying as this sounds, it could be the key to sustaining the strong demand for AI hardware powering some of the best performing markets in this region.
The three most prominent companies in Taiwan and South Korea riding the AI boom – TSMC, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix – had a combined weighting of 28.8 per cent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index at the end of last month.
TSMC alone accounted for 54.8 per cent of the MSCI Taiwan Index, while Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had a combined weighting of 62.4 per cent in the MSCI Korea Index.
The IPOs of SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic would also unlock hundreds of billions of dollars of private capital. Some of this may be redeployed into new AI-linked ventures, which could keep the technology supply chains running through this region humming.
Some of the newly liquid capital may also rotate into diversified portfolios seeking income as well as value-oriented prospects – perhaps in laggard markets such as Indonesia.
This could be an opportunity for Singapore too. With the slew of measures to revitalise the market, and a renewed focus on shareholder value at many companies, investor interest in the local market has clearly improved and broadened out from the banks and real estate investment trusts.
During the 12-month period up to the end of last month, the Straits Times Index returned 35.3 per cent – led by City Developments (83.5 per cent), UOL (82 per cent), Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (80 per cent) and Venture (71.3 per cent).
The iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index returned 31.6 per cent – led by CSE Global (308.5 per cent), UMS (208.3 per cent), Hong Leong Asia (193.4 per cent), Frencken (189 per cent), and China Aviation Oil (135.5 per cent).
If Singapore companies continue growing, and maintain their investability to the satisfaction of the big index providers, the market should get its fair share of global capital flows.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/resale-condos-stay-on-the-market-longer-as-buyers-take-their-time-and-sellers-hold-firm-on-prices
*Resale condos staying on market longer as buyers take their time, sellers hold firm on prices*
SINGAPORE – When a two-bedroom condominium unit in Serangoon failed to sell after two months, the property agent persuaded its owner to reduce the $1.92 million asking price by $100,000.
In May, an offer was made for the 1,100 sq ft leasehold unit, which was first listed in early February.
But that deal fell through because the potential buyer was facing issues selling his own home – a common hurdle for buyers who need to dispose of one property before buying another.
The agent, who declined to be named, said: “Today’s buyers have many choices among resale units and they will take their time to shop for the best buy.”
Today, that unit has been on the market for at least four months. It is a sign of how some resale condo units are taking longer to sell as buyers hold back and new launches compete for demand.
Some sellers also continue to hold out for higher prices because higher land costs mean the cost of replacing a home is expected to rise further over the next 12 to 18 months, said Wong Shanting, director and head of research at real estate adviser Newmark Singapore.
Data from property portals PropertyGuru and 99.co showed resale condo listings are staying online for nearly twice as long as they did during the post-Covid-19 market peak.
In 2022, listings for completed resale condos were taken off the PropertyGuru portal after a median of 45 days. The following year, this went down to 39 days.
But as at May 18, 2026, active resale listings created in the first three months of the year had a median age of 81 days.
Similarly, 99.co associate head of research Joel Lim noted that resale condo listings taken off the portal in the first quarter of 2026 had been up for a median of 106 days.
This was up from 66 days in the same period in 2025.
“The resale condo market has clearly shifted from the urgency we saw at its peak,” said PropertyGuru Singapore’s managing director Yao Lu.
With listings staying up longer, buyers have more options and more time to decide, and market conditions have moved in the buyers’ favour, he added.
And the trend has been consistent across all parts of Singapore – the core central region (CCR), rest of central region (RCR) and outside central region (OCR).
On PropertyGuru, the median age of active listings as at May 18, 2026 was between 81 and 82 days across all three regions. Four out of 10 listings in each region had been live for more than 90 days.
For 99.co, the CCR saw the sharpest increase, with the median age of active listings rising to 145 days in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 76 days in the same time period in 2025.
In the RCR, it rose to 116 days from 69 days while in the OCR, it rose from 60 days to 86 days.
John Tan, who has been looking for a resale condo unit, said he has viewed more than 30 units since a year ago, but has not been able to strike a deal yet.
“Many of the units I saw were priced well above the market rate. And if the location of the unit is good, there is no room for negotiation,” said the 40-year-old sales manager.
“Not only were some sellers not willing to lower their prices, but they also asked for an extension to stay in their homes after the completion of the sale. I also would need to sell my flat in order to buy their property.
“If I allow them to extend, I would also need to ask for an extension after I sell my flat. That way, it is very hard to close any deal,” he added.
The number of resale condo units sold has fallen for two consecutive quarters since the July to September period in 2025.
However, asking prices have remained firm.
PropNex chief executive Kelvin Fong said the median resale unit price was $1,770 per sq ft as at May 19, 2026, up from $1,747 psf in 2025.
In contrast, the median for new condo sales is 44.3 per cent higher at $2,554 psf.
Fong said these figures show that private residential resale demand has not weakened materially. He added that the 3,225 units resold in the first three months of 2026 were still broadly in line with the 10-year quarterly average resale volume of 3,216 units from 2016 to 2025.
Chief researcher and strategist at property firm Realion (OrangeTee & ETC) Group Christine Sun said the slowdown in transaction volumes can also be observed in other sectors such as the HDB resale, rental, and the industrial markets.
She attributed the broader slowdown partly to macroeconomic uncertainties, including geopolitical conflicts, more layoffs in some sectors and rising inflationary concerns from higher oil prices.
Sun said the resale market could still remain resilient, as the supply of newly completed units is low and the price gap between new and resale condo units remains substantial.
Recent changes to executive condo rules, including a higher allocation of units to first-time buyers and longer minimum occupation period, may encourage more potential HDB upgraders to turn to the resale market, Sun added.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/no-transaction-fees-and-third-party-apps-spore-travellers-cheer-expanded-payment-options-in-china
*No transaction fees and third-party apps: S’pore travellers cheer expanded payment options in China*
SINGAPORE – As an account manager travelling to China at least 10 times a year for work and leisure, Victoria Goh effortlessly uses popular e-wallet WeChat Pay for rides, shopping and dining.
But like many travellers, the 29-year-old often pays more for her purchases than necessary. Each time her transaction exceeds 200 yuan (S$38), a 3 per cent fee is levied on her Singapore-issued debit card that is linked to WeChat Pay to top up the e-wallet.
These additional charges, levied by WeChat Pay, are now behind her.
She is among millions of DBS Bank users who are now able to remit funds directly from their bank account to their WeChat Pay e-wallet, and make payment via merchant QR codes in China without incurring additional platform fees.
The update comes as Chinese payment giant TenPay Global, which operates WeChat Pay, opened up its remittance service to foreign passport holders residing in or visiting China.
It is the latest in a series of moves that have made payment in China increasingly seamless for foreigners. Since February, OCBC Bank has allowed its Singapore customers to scan WeChat Pay merchant QR codes for payment directly through the OCBC app, without having to download third-party apps.
Direct transfers from foreign banks were previously not allowed, and the only way foreign passport holders could top up their WeChat Pay wallet is via a linked credit or debit card.
To avoid paying additional fees through the linked credit or debit cards, some travellers had asked friends with Chinese bank accounts to transfer money directly into their WeChat Pay wallets.
Financial adviser Ryan Lok had done this when he went to China for two work trips in 2026.
The 27-year-old added that he would be tapping DBS’ and OCBC’s new features to make payments during his upcoming trip in end-June if the exchange rates the banks charge are “favourable”.
“If the bill is $200, paying an extra 3 per cent is not so bad. But if the bill is $1,000, paying an extra $30 is a lot,” said Lok, who often foots the bill for meals and drinks with friends and clients using WeChat Pay.
In China, most shops do not accept foreign bank-issued credit cards. The most common mode of payment is via QR-code scanning through e-wallets WeChat Pay or AliPay.
Media professional Carol Ang, 48, said that being able to remit from DBS to WeChat Pay is a handy backup plan in case her preferred method of paying via Alipay does not work.
“Every trip, I would encounter at least one instance where my payment does not go through, mostly at smaller food stalls by the road,” said Ang, who added that she has had to keep cash on hand to deal with such contingencies.
DBS is among 60 major banks and institutions globally that TenPay Global works with to allow cross-border remittance for non-Chinese citizens.
“We are continuously exploring opportunities to expand our network of banking and financial institution partners in Singapore,” said a TenPay Global spokesperson, adding that the goal is to achieve “ubiquitous connectivity across the global financial ecosystem”.
OCBC Bank has allowed its Singapore customers to scan UnionPay and Alipay QR codes to make payment directly to Chinese merchants through the OCBC app since 2023 and 2024 respectively.
The expansion to include WeChat Pay QR codes since February has led to an increase in the use of OCBC’s scan and pay feature in China, said OCBC’s head of card payments and personal loans Regina Lim. “Last year, one in five overseas Scan & Pay transactions on the OCBC app was made in China,” said Lim, who added that China has emerged as a top destination for OCBC customers using this feature overseas.
By the end of June, OCBC plans to allow its customers to transfer money directly from the OCBC app to non-Chinese passport holders using WeChat Pay.
Among those who prefer to use OCBC’s Scan & Pay feature is final-year undergraduate Teng Xin Yi. “I don’t want to use so many apps. I can just stick to the OCBC app to make payment,” said the 24-year-old who travels at least once a year to visit her family in China.
The exchange rate is also not a huge difference and quite competitive.
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https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/china-has-powerful-new-oil-price-weapon
*China has a powerful new oil price weapon*
_The Middle East conflict reveals how the Asian giant has become the stabilising force for commodity prices_
SAUDI Arabia is known as the “swing exporter” in the oil market, because it can either pump out more or less of the black stuff in response to shocks.
Historically, the kingdom hasn’t had a match on the demand side.
Barring a major economic crisis, consuming nations have always kept their purchases steady. Not anymore. After the Iran war, China has emerged as the world’s first oil “swing importer”.
The ramifications of China becoming a stabilising force for commodity prices go way beyond the latest Middle East conflict. This potentially reshapes the energy market – and Asian geopolitics.
If the 1973 supply shock minted the term “Arab oil weapon”, the 2026 US-Israeli war on Iran now gives us the “Chinese oil weapon”. Or maybe “shield” is a better word, seeing how it might be wielded by Beijing in future stand-offs with the US.
*Chinese oil shield*
To give you a sense of the magnitude of the swing, Chinese official customs data showed that the country’s total oil imports, including via pipeline and railway, fell in May to an eight-year low of 7.8 million barrels a day.
That is a third less than before the war broke out. Imports arriving by tanker plunged further still, hitting a 10-year low, more than 45 per cent below its 2025 average.
So in May, China cut its average daily waterborne oil imports by the same amount as the combined oil consumption of Germany, France and the UK. And it did so without suffering economic harm, at least from an outside view.
It is early days, and we still don’t know much about how Beijing managed to achieve the reduction. But we can anticipate a couple of outcomes.
In the oil market itself, it will lower – perhaps permanently – the geopolitical risk premiums that traders add to oil prices, because they now know that China can smooth out large supply disruptions in a way that was unthinkable weeks ago.
But it is in diplomacy and war where the implications are more profound. China is far less vulnerable than previously thought to any oil embargo via naval blockade, a paradigm shift if conflict breaks out with Taiwan.
China’s then-president Hu Jintao first referred to the “Malacca Dilemma” back in 2003, talking about how much of his country’s commodity imports arrived via the Malacca Strait, a narrow shipping chokepoint near Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
In war games, American military planners had envisaged using that dependency to block Beijing’s access to key natural resources if it attacked Taiwan. The US Navy had the added comfort that the blockade could be established far away from mainland China.
The Malacca Dilemma has shaped much of China’s natural-resources policy over the past two decades, helping to explain its move to bolster domestic energy sources.
Solar and wind power came to the fore, alongside hefty investments in electric vehicles, but coal was also crucial.
The country stockpiled a huge amount of oil in what’s now the largest strategic petroleum reserve. At the end of 2025, China had about 1.4 billion barrels held back, three times what the US controlled at the time, and more than six times the size of Japan’s stock.
All of these levers over energy use have been on display over the past couple of months. The use of EVs, for example, soared in April and May, with early data pointing to charging on Chinese highways increasing by 50 to 80 per cent year on year.
The amount of coal-fired electricity generation hit a seasonal record high in April, and the country has used its coal-to-chemicals industry to provide critical products, such as fertilisers, despite shortages of the usual feedstocks.
The role of China’s oil reserve is unclear, but my reckoning is that Beijing tapped its stockpile – most likely underground sites – to release perhaps as many as 100 million to 200 million barrels between mid-April and mid-June.
Of course, China made all of these interventions out of necessity as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut off key commodity supplies for Asia. Don’t expect Chinese policymakers to remain as active in the future if the nascent peace deal holds.
Next steps
What Beijing will do next is unclear. If it has indeed tapped its strategic reserve, it will probably rebuild those stockpiles, giving global oil demand a short-term boost.
But beyond that, something important has shifted. China has been the most significant bullish factor for oil prices since 2000, thanks to its voracious thirst. Today, it is becoming a stabilising force and that is ultimately bearish for this market.
If the Arab states’ use of the oil weapon in 1973 produced the first global energy crisis, China has used its own shield in 2026 to damp a shock so effectively that a market crisis was avoided.
This is also a historic first.
Oil prices rose, though not nearly as much as feared. Inflation remained relatively contained, the job market continued growing and Wall Street boomed. That is a remarkable outcome, given what has been happening in the Strait of Hormuz. BLOOMBERG
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The Middle East conflict reveals how the Asian giant has become the stabilising force for commodity prices Read more at The Business Times.
