SGX Sees Volume Growth in January 2015

The “Asian Gateway” Singapore Exchange (SGX) released its January figures, reporting increased retail activity and continued growth in securities trading for the month. Derivatives volumes remained robust on the exchange with record volumes in key derivatives contracts “on the back of increased participation from all customer categories.”

Derivatives

Total derivatives volume (14.7 million contracts) was down 15% month-on-month but up 67% year-on-year. SGX’s report states that it actually saw a record volume of more than 1.5 million contracts traded in a single day. Most likely this day was January 15^th or soon after.

The SGX Indian rupee/US dollar foreign exchange futures also set a new monthly record with 206,383 contracts, a month-over-month increase of 21% and 24 times more than before. The SGX US dollar/Singapore dollar FX futures traded a total of 23,441 contracts—three times more than the month before and seven times that of the previous year.

Another single-day record was also set in January, with almost 600,000 contracts of SGX FTSE China A50 Index futures being traded. More than 7.1 million were traded throughout the month, also down monthly (25%) but up yearly (202%).

The exchange reported strong growth in its MSCI India Index futures (with a record volume of two million contracts—up 20% since last month and 43% since last year) and CNX Nifty futures. Volume of cleared OTC SGD interest rate swaps was $10.4 billion, almost four times the volume a month before and 51% higher than last year “as activity picked up with increased Volatility seen in both the Forex and interest rates markets.”

Securities

Average daily trading value was $1.2 billion, an increase over last month of 22% and 12% year-on-year. Total trading value was up 17% month-on-month and 12% year-on-year ($25 billion). There was one less trading day than last month and the same amount as January of last year (21).

SGX also experienced a 9% increase in their number of active clients. “Smaller board lots were introduced on 19 January to make the higher priced stocks more easily available to retail investors and early indications point to increased retail participation in the STI stocks.” Bond listings amounted to 26, raising $16 billion—double the amount a month before but the first figure to be down from the previous year (by 35%).

Commodities

SICOM futures on rubber (the world benchmark for physical rubber pricing) traded 47,335 contracts in January, an 11% monthly increase and a 69% yearly increase. Volumes of iron ore swaps and AsiaClear iron ore futures totaled 523,520 contracts. This is up 60% month-on-month and more than five times the volume of last year January—reflecting “increased support from the iron and steel industry participants.”