DBS, OCBC surge on strong H1 results but don’t overlook the potential of underdog UOB

[SINGAPORE] There was a lot riding on DBS, OCBC and UOB’s financial results last week – with some analysts calculating that the three stocks had accounted for nearly 89 per cent of the Straits Times Index’s gain since the beginning of the year, up to Jul 30.

Fortunately, the three banks delivered sufficiently strong numbers to staunch most of the nervousness about their increasingly rich valuations – with their wealth management activities and asset growth compensating for further normalisation of their net interest margins.

Notably, DBS reported a 3 per cent rise in total income to just more than S$12 billion for H1 2026, as net interest income fell 3 per cent to S$7.1 billion while non-interest income rose 15 per cent to nearly S$5 billion. Its net profit for the six-month period rose 5 per cent to just over S$6 billion.