With the US and Iran continuing their fighting and the global AI sell-off intensifying, defensiveness is the name of the game again.

This week, we are going local into the Singapore market to find the blue-chip stocks that can withstand any risks.

And we are highlighting three SG blue-chip names that you might be very familiar with.

Before we proceed, we have some interesting content this week that might change how you think about your portfolio!

Towkay Talk

Stock Rundowns

IPOs

Cheers,
InvestKaki Team 🤜🤛

Moving on, here are the news that shocked the world…

Alphabet $GOOG ( ▲ 0.24% ): Google posted strong results for 2Q 2026, but all investors can think of is its higher CAPEX investments for AI, while it registered its first negative cash flow position since listing two decades ago [Read More]

IBM $IBM ( ▲ 3.65% ): IBM delivered its much-awaited earnings results for 2Q 2026 after issuing a profit warning last week. Revenue is only up by 1%, while it revised down its forecasted growth to 4% to 5%. [Read More]

GM $GM ( ▲ 2.44% ): GM’s earnings beat expectations. Despite pulling back on EVs, the company’s North American business remain resilient. [Read More]

Anthropic X AMD $AMD ( ▼ 3.29% ) : Another circular deal. AMD is investing US$5 billion into Anthropic, while Anthropic is using AMD’s Instinct chips to deploy 2GW [Read More]

Comcast $CMCSA ( ▲ 1.71% ): Its 2Q earning results confirm several things. Comcast’s content and experiences division that includes NBCUniversal is growing, with Peacock being profitable for the first time. Meanwhile, its TV broadband is losing customers [Read More]

Here are the news items covering the Asia market…

Zhongji Innolight: Zhongji Innolight, the largest IPO in the Hong Kong market, has set the highest subscription threshold in the city’s history, dampening retail investors’ appetite [Read More]

HSBC: HSBC is selling its Singaporean insurance unit to Allianz for US$2.08 billion, with HSCB Singapore having an exclusive bancassurance distribution right for 15 years [Read More]

SGX-US ADR: SGX has introduced three US-listed companies - Grab, Sea, and SpaceX - to its Singapore Depository Receipts (SDR) suite to allow Singaporean investors to buy them in SGD [Read More]

EGP Energy IPO: EGP Energy, an electrical infrastructure solutions provider is looking to raise SG$30.6 million from investors to expand its product offerings and customer base [Read More]

OUE REIT: OUE REIT’s distribution was up by 28.6% for 1H 2026, driven by stronger hospitality performance and lower interest expense. [Read More]

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DBS is Singapore’s biggest bank, offering banking and financial services in Singapore, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

💪 Defensive Case: We are focusing on the 5-year beta indicator as a measure of how defensive a stock is. If you didn’t know, beta is the measure of the systematic risk of a stock relative to the market. The higher a beta is, the more it will move in line with the market. For example, if the SGX declines by 10%, a company that has a beta of 1.00 will probably also decline by 10%. So, we are looking for companies that have a beta that is low or below 0.50, which indicates that they are not that affected by what’s happening in the overall market.

DBS fits this criterion quite well, with a 5-year beta of 0.28, one of the lowest in comparison to the sector average of 0.42.

However, that’s not the only thing we like about DBS. It is the biggest company on the Singapore market with a market capitalisation of SG$209 billion. To us, the bigger you are, the better. It means that it will be able to withstand shocks from the market. And this materialises from its financial side based on its historical track record.

From 2021 to 2025, DBS’s revenue recorded an average annual growth of 12.5%, while profits nearly doubled from SG$6.7 billion to SG$10.9 billion. In 2021, during the pandemic, revenue declined by only 1.3% as its clients still needed to use its banking services.

⚡ What to be careful about: As much as DBS is the biggest company in the market with a low beta, it is still exposed to the overall state of the global and Singaporean economy. A slowdown will reduce demand for DBS’s banking and financial services.

It has also recently risen to record highs in share price, making a sudden downturn possible as investors take profit.

❓ Market Analysts: Target price of SG$69.9 with a downside of -5.5%.

SingTel is a telecommunications company that services customers in Singapore, Australia, and internationally.

💪 Defensive Case: SingTel boasts a low 5-year beta of 0.25, compared to the telecommunications sector average of 0.62.

Its business model is straightforward. It sells mobile plans and connectivity services to regular consumers and companies, where demand is still there regardless of how the economy is doing. In recent years, to take advantage of the AI boom, it has started to sell AI integration services through its NCS business segment. It also provides data centre services now with Nxera and RE:AI.

SingTel is the market leader in the Singapore telecommunications market with a market capitalisation of SG$73 billion. And it is on track to achieve its SingTel 28 transformation plan.

⚡ What to be careful about: SingTel is technically plugged into the global AI industry and could have sudden pullbacks in share price if investors shift away due to concerns on overvaluation.

❓ Market Analysts: Target price of SG$5.32 with upside of +21.3%

Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE) sells technology, defence, and engineering products and solutions.

💪 Defensive Case: STE has the lowest 5-year beta of 0.15 out of the three companies here, and is much lower than the industrial sector average of 0.45.

STE sells mostly defence and public security products and services, which made up about 43% of its 1Q 2026 revenue. This is followed by the aerospace segment (41%) and urban solutions and SATCOM (16%). STE is lucky in this sense as its business saw increased demand from countries that are in conflict.

However, the defensive part of its business comes mainly from its provision of regular defence and public security products that are part of a country’s ‘normal’ spending on them. Countries, regardless of whether they are in a conflict, will always demand for defence and public security products.

⚡ What to be careful about: Potential slowdown in the aerospace segment as airlines and airlines-related companies are facing slowdown due to high oil prices amid the US-Iran conflict.

❓ Market Analysts: Target price of SG$11.58 with implied upside of 9.3%.

And that’s a wrap!

Cheers,
James Yeo~