Singapore Exchange CEO sees early signs of recovery in securities market

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Exchange Ltd is seeing early signs of an improvement in trading volume following a number of measures taken to boost liquidity, the company's chief executive officer told Reuters.

"The first three weeks of this year are coming up much stronger than the same three weeks a year ago," Magnus Bocker said in an interview.

SGX has launched a series of initiatives over the past year to improve liquidity such as providing incentives for brokers to act as market makers and cutting the minimum number of shares that need to be purchased in a single trade from 1000 units to 100.

While Singapore is the number one venue in Asia for foreign exchange trading, the average value of shares traded on its exchange each day is now less than that of Thailand's and trails far behind Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Mr Bocker added that he hopes the much-heralded Stock Connect link between Hong Kong and Shanghai could lead to a similar connection between Southeast Asia's exchanges.

REUTERS