SGX Reports Lackluster Market Volumes for July

The Singapore Exchange (SGX), a securities exchange operator, published its market statistics today for this July. The results show a mixed-bag performance, with the three main segments – securities, derivatives, and commodities all showing either month-on-month or year-on-year declines.

During July, the exchange operator hosted four initial public offerings (IPOs), the highest number of listings per month so far this year. Collectively, the four IPOs raised $105 million (SGD 143.3 million).

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On the securities market, the total turnover was $18 billion (SGD 24.6 billion). This is a slight uptick of one percent from June’s turnover. However, it is down by four percent year-on-year. It is important to note that there was one less trading day in July this year than last year. 

The average daily value for securities (SDAV) was $821 million (SGD 1.12 billion). This is a slowdown of 8% both month-on-month and year-on-year. For all of the 745 listed companies on the securities market, the total market capitalization value was $731.5 6 billion (SGD 997.86 billion) at the end of July.

Taking a look at the derivatives market, the total volume was 16.9 million, a decline of five percent from the previous month. When compared to the same time period last year, the market volume was up 19 percent. According to the report, the FTSE China A50 Index Futures remained the most active contract. In July, total contracts traded was 7.32 million. This is an increase of 13 percent from June 2018, and up 32 percent from the same period in 2017.

Forex volumes fall on SGX

The total foreign exchange futures volumes on the exchange fell by eight percent from June’s volumes, coming in at 1.7 million. However, this was an impressive 124 percent year-on-year increase. On the exchange, futures volume for INR/USD was 1.08 million. While this was down 23 percent from the previous month, it was up 81 percent year-on-year.

Futures volumes for USD/CNH was actually up both on a yearly and monthly basis. Coming in at 614,852, this is an increase of 45 percent from June 2018 and up a significant uptick of 308 percent from the same period last year. This increase is not overly surprising as the demand for China-based assets continues to grow.

In addition, the value of cleared over-the-counter (OTC) Singapore Dollar interest rate swaps was also up by 45 percent month-on-month at $11 billion (SGD 15.2 billion). While this was an increase from June this year, it was still down 20 percent year-on-year.

For commodities on SGX, the results also left a lot to be desired. On the exchange, the volume for commodities derivatives was 1.26 million. This is only just up by two percent from June, but it is a decline of 16 percent year-on-year.

Iron Ore Derivatives did slightly better. The total volume was 986,906 which is a six percent uptick from the previous month. When compared to the same period last year, however, it was still down year-on-year.