During its monthly market statistics report for the month of February, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) Group S68 noted higher trading activity, especially in commodities and foreign exchange (forex). This was attributable to China’s reopening, which saw global institutional investors trading on the group’s multi-asset platform.
However, the total market securities turnover for the month of February fell by 25.3% y-o-y to $22.1 billion, according to the monthly market statistics released by the group on March 31.
February 2023 had a total number of 20 trading days, two days more than the 18 days in February 2022.
In cash equities, securities daily average value (SDAV) fell by 32.7% y-o-y to $1.1 billion.
According to SGX, retail turnover rebounded by 10% on a m-o-m basis, with over $811 million in net inflows across all stock segments and led by the constituents in the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI).
During the month, the value of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fell by 28% y-o-y to $294 million.
Structured warrants fell by 3% y-o-y to $288 million.
Daily leveraged certificates (DLCs) increased by 72% y-o-y to $371 million.
On a m-o-m basis, the market turnover value of both structured warrants and DLCs grew by 58% amid “steady institutional trades”. Structured warrants and DLCs saw 33 new listings in the month, up by 43% m-o-m.
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Total derivatives traded volume rose by 7% y-o-y to about 20 million in February, which is the highest in three months.
Derivatives daily average volume (DDAV) fell by 5.5% y-o-y to 1.01 million.
In commodities, iron ore derivatives volume increased 53% y-o-y to about 3.1 million contracts, up 24% month-on-month (m-o-m), while forward freight agreements (FFA) volume climbed 13% m-o-m to 193,797 contracts.
SGX SICOM rubber futures saw volume rise by 26% y-o-y to 179,529 contracts.
In foreign exchange (forex), SGX USD/CNH Futures saw volume jump by 85% y-o-y to 1.5 million contracts. This was partly due to the lower number of trading days in the year before due to the Chinese New Year (CNY) period happening in February.
SGX INR/USD Futures volume increased 2% y-o-y to 1.2 million contracts, as the Indian rupee declined towards the second half of February.
Total forex futures volume climbed 39% y-o-y to 2.9 million contracts.
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On SGX equity derivatives, the SGX FTSE China A50 Index Futures saw traded volume increase by 5% y-o-y to 7.5 million contracts.
SGX MSCI Singapore Index Futures volume gained 7% y-o-y to 1.2 million contracts due to several factors including positive earnings from local banks.
The SGX MSCI Singapore contract saw T+1 overnight volumes accounting for 10% of February’s total, standing at a six-month high.
Total equity futures volume fell by 2% y-o-y to 13.1 million contracts.
On SGX fixed income, the amount issued from 149 new bond listings climbed to $34.1 billion in February. Highlights included Korea Development Bank’s US$2 billion ($2.69 billion) dual-tranche notes offering, Temasek’s EUR1.5 billion dual-tranche notes offering and Korea Housing Finance Corporation’s US$1.3 billion ($2.16 billion) dual-tranche social bonds.
As at end-February, the STI fell by 3.1% to 3,262.63. The total market capitalisation value of 648 listed companies stood at $824.3 million as at end-February.
Shares in SGX closed 18 cents lower or 2.04% down at $8.63 on March 13.
