"LUNCH is for wimps," said Gordon Gekko in the 1980s movie classic Wall Street.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) may no longer agree with Mr Gekko's famous quip, having finally given up on its past fixation over longer trading hours. This week, SGX said that it would restore the lunch break for brokers from Nov 13, which will effectively cut trading time by an hour (noon to 1pm). The move - among others announced on Tuesday, including widening the minimum bid spreads - follows a public consultation in March this year.

The proposal for a mid-day trading break drew "significant support" among over 30 respondents, with SGX noting that their concerns over lower trading volumes and investors' ability to trade and manage their risk as a result of the shorter hours can be "addressed and mitigated". In doing so, the city's stock exchange with a market capitalisation of over S$1 trillion, has reverted to pre-2011 when remisiers had a chance to "have lunch in peace", as Remisiers' Society president Jimmy Ho put it, or attend to other job tasks such as meeting clients and attending company presentations.