Derivatives volume up 15% in July

Daily average volume was 252,751 contracts.

Singapore Exchange said derivatives trading increased in July from a year ago as total volume increased to 5.2 million contracts. China A50 futures trading rose 2% from June to 229,717 contracts while MSCI Taiwan futures volume was 3% up from a year earlier at 1.4 million contracts. Nifty futures volume was 1.2 million contracts or 52% higher from a year earlier.

Meanwhile securities turnover fell 3% year on year to $30.1 billion with securities daily average value at $1.4 billion. Exchange traded fund turnover increased 27% from a year earlier to $822 million. Structured Warrants volume, on the other hand, increased 84% year-on-year to 3.4 million units.

SGX said new minimum bid sizes introduced on 4 July has significantly lowered bid-ask spreads, saving investors about $130 million in trading costs for the stocks affected. Trading volume for these shares rose 35% to 9.4 billion units month-on-month.

As for commodities, agricultural commodity futures volume increased 3% year on year to 21,409 contracts following the consolidation of SICOM contracts onto the SGX platform. Volume of OTC commodity contracts cleared rose 5% from a year earlier to 19,812 contracts.

The volume of Iron Ore Swaps cleared hit a new record high of 7,845 contracts, more than double from a year earlier. Clearing of OTC Interest Rate Swaps continued to grow with a notional $32 billion cleared in July bringing the cumulative amount cleared since launch to $142 billion notional.