Volatility drives SDAV, ETF value higher on Singapore bourse in March

TRADING activity in the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) securities and derivatives surged in the month of March, as global markets continued to be roiled by heightened volatility amid the coronavirus pandemic.

This volatility drove the Singapore bourse's securities daily average value (SDAV) up by 114 per cent to S$2.2 billion from a year ago, while total securities market turnover jumped 124 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to S$48.2 billion.

The market turnover value of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also increased by more than eight times to S$1.2 billion from last year, SGX said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, total equity and debt fundraising on SGX reached S$11 billion during the month.

In March, United Hampshire US Reit also joined SGX's mainboard as Asia's first US grocery-anchored shopping centre and self-storage real estate investment trust, while water-treatment company Memiontec Holdings listed on the Catalist.

Continuous Covid-19 news flow also drove risk management in all trading sessions. Significantly, almost a quarter of futures contracts traded on SGX changed hands during the US and European time zones. This underscores a demand for continuous price formation and round-the-clock risk management, SGX said.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Separately, total derivatives traded volume rose 41 per cent y-o-y in March to about 33 million contracts.

Equity index futures volume climbed 35 per cent y-o-y to 25.2 million contracts. This included a 138 per cent y-o-y increase in Nikkei 225 Index Futures and a 110 per cent y-o-y gain in MSCI India Net Total Return (NTR) Futures.

In addition, foreign exchange (FX) futures volume rose 58 per cent to three million contracts from a year ago, signalling strong investor interest in accessing major emerging Asia markets such as China and India through SGX, the Singapore bourse noted.

During the month, the volume of SGX USD/CNH (US dollar and offshore Chinese yuan) futures traded almost doubled to 1.3 million contracts, while month-end open interest climbed 54 per cent y-o-y to US$5.4 billion.

As the Indian rupee dipped to historic lows during the month, the traded volume of SGX INR/USD (Indian rupee and US dollar) futures gained 37 per cent y-o-y to 1.6 million contracts.

On the commodities front, supply-chain uncertainties continued to drive more physical traders to the derivatives market, SGX said.

Total commodities derivatives volume rose 76 per cent y-o-y to 3.1 million contracts in March, while the exchange's iron ore futures volume grew 79 per cent to 2.7 million contracts as compared to the year-ago period. Petrochemicals volume was also up, increasing 136 per cent y-o-y on the back of heightened volatility in the oil market, SGX noted.