Company warrants have time on their side

THE vast majority of the liquidity in the warrants segment of the Singapore stock market tends to be concentrated in structured instruments and not those that are company-issued. For example, in Tuesday's session, the most active structured warrant was a Macquarie Bank-issued put on the Hang Seng Index that traded 290 million units, versus the 3.5 million done in the most active company warrant which was the one issued by KrisEnergy .

Why this is the case can be the subject of much discussion but is perhaps best left for another column. (Lack of publicity, too many held by major shareholders and a general absence of interest among retail investors have been suggested as possible reasons).

What should be noted for now is that there is plenty of value in the company-issued segment and that it is a shame that so many interesting instruments here are languishing in low volume.