SGX hits high after March securities turnover soars 50%

• Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX: S68) share price hit a three-month peak of S$10.16 this week
• This came on the back of ‘robust’ first quarter results, in which total securities market turnover value grew 12%
• The bourse operator experienced volume gains for derivatives across multiple asset classes, including forex and commodities
• Buy and sell SGX shares with an IG account

SGX share price: what’s the latest?

Singapore Exchange (SGX) shares have risen over 2% since releasing its market statistics for March 2021 on Monday (12 April 2021). Shares hit a three-month high of S$10.17 at 16:30 SGT on Tuesday.

Total securities market turnover value on the bourse increased 50% month-on-month in March 2021 to S$38.7 billion, the highest since March 2020.

For the January to March period, turnover was up 12% from the preceding quarter to S$94.2 billion. Securities daily average value (SDAV) rose 24% month-on-month to S$1.7 billion, gaining 18% on a quarterly basis to S$1.52 billion.

SGX said the ‘robust quarter’ was as a result of global markets being ‘buoyed by investor optimism on the strength of the economic recovery’. It added that Singapore’s stock market in particular ranking amongst the strongest of the global benchmarks.

The bellwether Straits Times Index (STI) added 7.3% in March to 3,165.34, climbing for a fifth straight month. The STI generated an 11.3% price increase during the quarter, more than doubling the first-quarter advance of the FTSE Asia Pacific Index.

The market turnover value of exchange-traded funds (ETF) on SGX gained 3% month-on-month in March 2021 to S$516 million. For the first quarter, ETF turnover rose 34% quarter-on-quarter to S$1.6 billion, with combined assets-under-management (AUM) of all 30 listed ETFs at S$8.99 billion.

Derivatives gains across various asset classes

Breaking down the results by segment, SGX’s derivatives franchise fared better quarter-on-quarter on the back of broad-based volume gains in March 2021 across multiple asset classes.

The average fee per contract for equity, currency and commodity derivatives for the March-ending quarter was S$1.38, a 19% increase over the previous quarter.

Total derivatives traded volume on SGX rose 31% month-on-month in March to 23.2 million contracts, the highest since July 2020. For the first quarter, volume climbed 13% from the previous quarter to 60.6 million.

SGX’s pan-Asia benchmark equity derivatives also increased 31% month-on-month in March to 16.7 million contracts, bringing the first-quarter volume up 12% quarter-on-quarter to 44.3 million.

Meanwhile, in foreign exchange (FX) markets, trading volume on SGX rose 27% month-on-month in March to 2.9 million contracts. For the first quarter, volume surged 20% quarter-on-quarter to 7.3 million.

SGX said it set monthly volume records for its USD/SGD, INR/USD and USD/INR (USD) futures in March 2021, stating that this reflected ‘strong demand among global institutional investors to risk-manage Asian currencies’.

Finally, total commodity derivatives volume increased 39% on a monthly basis in March to 2.5 million contracts, the highest since March 2020.

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