SGX adds 41 firms to watch-list for failure to meet new minimum trading price

SINGAPORE Exchange (SGX) has placed 41 Mainboard-listed companies on a watch-list for failing to meet the new minimum trading price, the market regulator announced on Wednesday after the market closed.

Another two companies were added to the watch-list on Wednesday for failing to meet both profitability and market value requirements. There are now 76 companies on the watch-list, comprising 41 companies on the list only for trading below the minimum trading price; 19 for only failing the profitability and market value requirements; and 16 for both trading below the minimum trading price and for failing the profitability and market value tests .

The new additions to the watch-list will each have three years to rectify their breaches of the listing requirements, failing which they may be forced to delist.

The companies that were already on the watch-list before Wednesday's announcement are still subject to the older and shorter two-year cure window for the profitability and market value requirements.

This is the first time that the watch-list includes companies whose six-month volume-weighted average trading prices (VWAP) fall below the newly implemented minimum of 20 Singapore cents. The new requirement was introduced by SGX as an attempt to improve market quality by reducing the vulnerability of Mainboard-listed stocks to manipulation.