Singapore's bond market declines to 7-year low

It posted an 18.5% decline in proceeds from last year.

The SGD bond market has not been as energetic as the IPO market, according to a report by Thomson Reuters. In 4Q16, the market generated $1.9b, down 40.3% from 3Q16 and 60.5% from 4Q15.

In the year thus far, the SGD bond market proceeds amounted to $17.5b, an 18.5% decline in proceeds from 2015, the lowest annual period since 2009 where it generated $11.6b.

From the proceeds this year, the financials sector accounted for 40.6% of the SGD bond market and raised $7.1b. Meanwhile, government & agencies and real estate captured 31.6% and 11.8% market share, respectively.

The largest issuance this year is the Housing and Development Board’s Singapore-dollar seven-year bond which raised $1.0b (US$698.0m) in January. Thomson Reuters reports that afterwards, HDB repeatedly returned to the local SGD market and generated a cumulative total of least $5.3 billion (US$3.8b) from seven bond offerings so far this year, compared to only one in 2015.