Dear Smart Investor, What goes up must come down. Or so they say. In November, the Straits Times Index hit a high of 3,263 points, up 14.2% for the year. Since then, the emergence of the Omicron variant has rattled the local stock market, causing the Singapore index to give back some of its gains. The new variant has muddied the waters of Singapore’s economic recovery. On one hand, the first vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) flights from Kuala Lumpur, India, and Indonesia landed last Monday, setting an important milestone in the reopening of Singapore’s borders. Yet, even as the VTL programme gains traction, the Singapore government has selectively pumped the brakes by postponing VTL flights to UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia until further notice. As the dust settles, the question remains: what does all this mean for Singapore stocks? Banking on Singapore’s banks No analysis of the STI is complete without taking Singapore’s banking trio of DBS Group...