The month of April saw slower market activity on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) S68 amid several factors. These include uncertainties over global interest rates, mixed sentiments on the impact of China’s reopening on domestic consumption, as well as a shorter trading month.
April had a total of 19 trading days compared to the 23 trading days in March and 20 trading days in April 2022.
The number of listed securities also fell to 645 in April, down from the 646 listed securities in March and 668 in April 2022.
However, secondary fundraising on SGX Securities almost doubled y-o-y in April to S$544.9 million as SGX-listed companies continued to tap the equity capital markets.
In April, total market securities turnover fell by 26.8% y-o-y and 33.5% m-o-m to $18.61 billion.
Securities daily average value (SDAV) fell 23.0% y-o-y and 19% m-o-m to $979 million. The lower figure was attributable to the consolidation of trading activity following the heightened volatility in March when both benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) and MSCI Singapore Index rebalanced.
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In April, the STI climbed 0.4% m-o-m to 3,270.51 points and ended the month with a total return of 1.3%.
The market turnover value for exchange-traded funds (ETF) fell by 45% y-o-y and 32.2% m-o-m to $248 million in April while turnover of structured warrants and daily leverage certificates (DLC) fell by 20% and 25% y-o-y to $263 million and $349 million respectively.
On a m-o-m basis, structured warrants and DLCs fell by 48.5% and 14.5% respectively.
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Derivatives daily average volume (DDAV) fell by 11.7% y-o-y and 7.8% m-o-m to 0.96 million contracts. Total derivatives traded volume fell by 14.9% y-o-y and 24.6% m-o-m to 17.7 million contracts.
During the month, commodity derivatives traded volume rose 55% y-o-y to 3.3 million contracts, led by a 63% y-o-y increase in benchmark iron ore volume. In April, screen trading contributed 51% of total futures volume during the month, up from about 45% through the first quarter. This reflects the continuing trend of growing adoption from financial participants, says SGX.
On a daily average volume (DAV) basis, screen volume climbed to almost 65,000 lots – a record high.
Freight derivatives traded volume also gained in April due to SGX Commodities, which enables institutional investors to risk-manage both cargo and freight on a single liquid and capital-efficient platform.
Forward freight agreement (FFA) volume rose 6% y-o-y to 133,582 contracts. Petrochemicals volume jumped 140% y-o-y, while the volume of SGX SICOM rubber futures, the global pricing bellwether for natural rubber, increased 45% y-o-y.
In foreign exchange (forex or FX), total futures traded volume on SGX FX slid 13% y-o-y in April to about 2.5 million contracts. However, in notional terms, volume climbed 4.3% y-o-y to US$172.9 billion ($230.68 billion), while month-end open interest gained 2.4% y-o-y to US$14.1 billion.
SGX USD/CNH Futures traded volume rose 23% y-o-y in April to almost 1.5 million contracts due to the news flow on the pace of China’s growth, which brought about portfolio hedging demand. The contract is the world’s most widely traded international renminbi futures.
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On SGX Equity Derivatives, equity index futures traded volume was 24% lower y-o-y at 11.4 million contracts.
SGX FTSE China A50 Futures saw volume decline by 27% y-o-y to 6.7 million contracts in April though open interest grew by 6% y-o-y. The contract is the world’s most liquid international futures contract for Chinese equities.
On SGX Fixed Income, $16.6 billion was issued from 41 new bond listings during the month, which stood steady on a m-o-m basis. Highlights included CK Hutchison International Ltd.’s US$2.5 billion dual-tranche senior notes, SK Hynix Inc.’s US$1.7 billion convertible bonds, Korea National Oil Corporation’s US$1 billion dual-tranche senior notes and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd.’s EUR500 million ($727.9 million) three-year covered bonds.
Shares in SGX closed flat at $9.46 on May 11.
