Jardine Matheson tops trading by value as smaller board lots trading starts

AN hour into trading on Monday morning, secondary-listed Jardine Matheson Holdings is Singapore Exchange's (SGX) top traded stock by value.

By 10am, 197,000 shares were traded with a total traded value of US$12.6 million. The counter rose 50 US cents to US$63.

The counter previously traded at a board lot size of 400 shares, making the minimum trading amount US$25,000. Now, its board lot, the minimum block of shares that can be traded, is 100 shares.

SGX implemented a board lot size of 100 shares on Monday, down from 1,000 shares previously. This was meant to make some stocks more affordable for retail investors to trade, as well as to allow institutional investors to better manage their risk exposures by enabling finer asset allocation.