The FINANCIAL — Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is pleased to announce on October 6 that both its derivatives and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) markets set new trading records in September 2008.
SGX’s derivatives market saw record volumes for both the July-September 2008 quarter and the month of September 2008, while SGX-listed ETFs set records for both the value and volume traded in September.
“We are pleased that customers are finding value in using our market access products, including futures contracts and ETFs. In particular, SGX has both futures contracts and ETFs traded on indices covering the Singapore, India and Taiwan markets, offering further trading opportunities. Our products enable investors to capitalise on investment opportunities and actively manage risks, even in challenging markets,” said Mr Chew Sutat, SGX Executive Vice President & Head of Market Development.
Derivatives market
A record 17,369,505 contracts were traded in the July-September 2008 quarter, a 17% increase over the 14,831,554 contracts in the previous record set in the quarter of January-March 2008.
For the month of September, a total of 6,483,272 contracts were traded. This is nearly 11% higher than the previous record of 5,842,187 contracts traded in July 2008, and a 68% increase over the 3,854,634 million contracts traded in September 2007.
Also in September 2008, the yen-denominated SGX Nikkei 225 Index Futures contract reached a new monthly record of 3,064,898 contracts traded – surpassing by 18% the previous record of 2,603,567 contracts set in August 2007.
In fact, the total volume of 46,619,152 contracts traded in the futures and options market in the first nine months of 2008 has already exceeded the total volume for the full year of 2007.
“Our attractiveness lies in our Asian Gateway strategy of providing a one-stop, pan-Asian equity derivatives product range. We offer the transparency of a listed platform, the credit risk management function of a central clearing house, and the enhanced capital efficiency offered via cross-margining capabilities all at one exchange. This is complemented by our contract specifications enhancements as well as our efforts to grow our customer base, especially targeting algorithmic and proprietary trading firms both in the region and globally,” added Mr Chew.
ETFs
Total trading value of SGX-listed ETFs was almost S$323 million in September 2008 – nearly 4% increase over the S$311.3 million previous record set in March 2008.
The value of SGX-listed ETFs traded continues to grow strongly, reaching S$2.2 billion in the first nine months of 2008. This is 277% higher than the S$584 million traded from January-September 2007. The increase in value is largely due to active trading in the iShares MSCI India ETF, Lyxor India ETF (Nifty) and SPDR Gold Shares.
In terms of volume, a record 38.2 million shares were traded in September – 7% higher than the previous record of 35.7 million shares, also set in March 2008.
“The growth in value and volume of ETFs traded is due to growing customer awareness of the benefits that they offer, especially in a volatile market. ETFs provide both diversification utility and efficient market access, contributing to increased trading of our ETFs by private banks,” said Mr Andrew Ler, SGX Senior Vice President & Head of Private Investors.
“In addition, two broking firms have been producing monthly ETF portfolio allocation and research reports since July 2008 – the first in the stockbroking industry. The brokers have also been conducting seminars to educate our retail investors on ETFs and how to make the best use of these reports. SGX is proud to support this initiative, as part of our commitment to grow our listed ETFs into an Asian markets and multiple asset class platform.”
SGX currently has 19 ETFs covering mainly Asian equity markets such as Singapore, India, Greater China, ASEAN, Korea and Japan and also on commodities, e.g. gold.
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