Structured warrants swell to a peak $92m in August

Majority of the turnover comprised Hang Seng Index warrants.

The first quarter of the year saw a rise in structured warrants turnover but it only reached its peak exactly a week ago when total securities market turnover arrived at 9% or $92 million.

SGX revealed that $86 million or 93.5% of turnover on 11 August 2016 comprised Hang Seng Index (HSI) warrants, issued by Macquarie, UBS, and Vontobel.

“The most traded warrant that day was issued by Vontobel, with a total turnover of $28 million. This issuer also saw a record overall total traded value of $34.6 million that day. The second-highest traded warrant was issued by UBS, with $24 million in a single warrant, and UBS’ turnover on 11 August totalled $26.1 million. Macquarie registered a peak of $11 million in a single warrant and total turnover of $31.4 million that day,” SGX elaborated.

Single stock warrants also rose to around $22 million in the first two weeks of August, with DBS Bank as the most active counter, nabbing $10 million or almost half of single stock warrant activity and beating nine other stocks. These include UOB, OCBC, Keppel Corporation, Singtel, SGX, Wilman International, CapitaLand, Global Logistic Properties, and Sembcorp Marine. All ten stocks belong to 102 SGX-listed stocks each with market capitalisation above $1.0 billion, and a total combined capitalisation of $668.4 billion, SGX said.