DBS Back as Most Valuable Southeast Asian Listed Company

By Megan Cheah

SINGAPORE--Shares of DBS Group closed at a record high on Wednesday, making Singapore's largest lender by assets the most-valuable listed company in Southeast Asia once again.

The stock closed 3.6% higher after gaining as much as 3.9% intraday, sending the benchmark FTSE Straits Times Index to a new closing high of 4346.46.

The record close enabled the lender to surpass Singapore-based tech giant Sea as the most valuable Southeast Asian company by market capitalization. The pair have been taking turns to hold the title for some time, with Sea last overtaking DBS in late August.

Sea, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, had a market capitalization of US$114.06 billion as of its last close, LSEG data showed. Based on DBS's closing price of 52.73 Singapore dollars a share, its market capitalization was S$149.64 billion, equivalent to US$116.65 billion.

DBS's local banking peers, United Overseas Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., had more muted movements, with UOB falling 0.25% and OCBC adding 0.5%.

DBS's gains likely stem from investors' confidence in its fundamentals, given its strong second-quarter earnings and attractive dividend payouts, analysts say. The lender's net profit for the April-June period rose 1.25% from a year earlier, fueled by strong net fee and commission income.

Its fixed-dividend policy and capital returns are also the strongest of the three Singapore banks, said Glenn Thum, research manager at Phillip Securities Research.

He said that DBS's momentum would likely continue if the bank can hold its third-quarter net-interest margin and net-interest income at its current levels through its deposit inflows.

Write to Megan Cheah at megan.cheah@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 10, 2025 06:49 ET (10:49 GMT)