Singapore trading costs have plummeted to below pre-June 2011 levels

Market trading has been made noticeably cheaper.

According to the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the trading costs for large-cap and mid-cap stocks were 47% lower in 2012 compared to pre-June 2011 levels. It attributed the large decline in costs to the enhancements to Singapore’s securities infrastructure and market microstructure in 2011 such as reduced minimum bid sizes appear to have further improved the market for all participants.

SGX launched the initiatives to enhance market liquidity.

In fact, the average number of trades in 2012 was 54% higher than in 2011. Average trade sizes in 2012 though ranged only between $12,000 and $16,000, lower than the $11,000 to $37,000 range in 2011. 

Average number of quotes was also higher by 6% in 2012 than in 2011. "This could be due to a higher level of interest in the market because trading costs were lower as a result of reduced minimum bid sizes," said SGX.

SGX further noted that traded value was 11% lower in 2012 at a monthly average of $1.25 billion, compared with a monthly average of $1.4 billion in 2011. But traded volume was 51% higher at a monthly average of 1.8 billion shares in 2012, compared with a monthly average of 1.2 billion shares in 2011.