SGX securities market begins whole-day trading

Monday’s trade from 12.30pm to 2.00pm generated $110mn, contributing to 6.4% of the day’s trading.

Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) securities market on Monday successfully started trading continuously all day.

Turnover from 12.30pm to 2.00pm was $110 million, contributing to 6.4% of today’s trading.

All-day trading allows investors to respond more easily to regional market movements and news flows as Singapore’s securities market hours now overlap more with those of other Asian exchanges, including those in China, India and Japan. Investors face less risk as they will be able to access the market throughout the day to manage their Pan-Asian investments on SGX.

“With the securities market open all day, Singapore strengthens its position as a leading financial centre.

At the same time, investors will benefit from increased investment opportunities which should eventually, help improve liquidity. SGX would like to thank investors, the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), Member firms and vendors for their efforts in ensuring a smooth start to all-day trading,” said Mr Nels Friets, Head of Securities at SGX.

Separately, SGX reduced minimum bid size for most securities from 4 July. Bid/ask spreads have narrowed, lowering trading cost for investors by 20% to 45%. Total savings for investors from the new bid sizes in July was about $130 million. Spreads for shares priced below $0.20 have narrowed an average 53% compared with the June average, according to an SGX report.

Trading volume for these shares in the four week from 4 July has risen 51% to 5.2 billion shares from June. Structured Warrants volume increased 50% to 3.4 billion in the same period.