Forex average daily turnover in Singapore hits record high in April with US$507b (Amended)

AVERAGE daily reported turnover in the overall foreign exchange market in Singapore hit a record high in April this year.

Some US$507 billion were traded in April, a 26 per cent increase from October 2015, the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee (SFEMC) said in a release on Monday.

These were detailed in the results of a semi-annual survey of foreign exchange volume here.

April's average daily turnover was the highest since the survey started more than a decade ago.

In that month, over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange derivatives, made up of foreign exchange options and currency swaps, reached an average daily turnover of about US$87 billion.

Average daily reported turnover for spot transactions, outright forwards and foreign exchange swaps reached US$419 billion.

The survey is based on information compiled from the top 30 foreign exchange activity institutions in Singapore, with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in the collection of data and administering of survey. The reporting basis of the survey is the location of the trading desk.

The SFEMC also collaborated with representatives from New York, the United Kingdom, Tokyo, Canada and Australia to produce similar surveys over the same time period for their respective markets.

Amendment note: An earlier version of this article put the average daily reported turnover in the overall foreign exchange market in April as US$506 billion. The newsmaker would like to clarify that after rounding off the figure, it should be US$507 billion. The headline and the article above have been edited to reflect this.