Minimum trading price rule may need tweaking

CLEARLY, many retail trading representatives (TRs) feel strongly about the minimum trading price (MTP) of S$0.20 for the Singapore Exchange (SGX) mainboard.

On Thursday, the Society of Remisiers (SOR) president Jimmy Ho was quoted in BT as saying his members hope that the SGX will either reconsider MTP, which comes into effect in March next year after a one-year transition period, or at least offer viable alternatives for companies that look in danger of failing foul of the rule. On Friday, SOR followed this up with a letter to BT.

Since dozens of companies have already undergone share consolidations to satisfy the MTP requirement of S$0.20, a reversal to the pre-MTP status quo would neither be be fair nor feasible.