SGX Securities Trading Up in August

Volume of securities trading grew month-on-month in August though it was down year-on-year, the Singapore Exchange reported Wednesday.

Total securities turnover fell 29 per cent from August 2011 to S$29.4 billion but rose 11 per cent from a month earlier.

Catalist board was the winner in August with volume traded more than doubled to S$401 million year-on-year while ETF trading fell 55 per cent year-on-year to S$533 million.

On the derivatives side, volume fell 20 per cent to 6.5 million contracts on-year but rose 12 per cent month-on-month.

Daily average contracts traded fell 19 per cent year-on-year to 292,558 contracts but was up 8 per cent from July.

China A50 futures trading volume more than doubled to 730,699 contracts from a year earlier, while the Nikkei 225 futures volume fell 40 per cent year-on-year to 2.1 million contracts but was up 12 per cent on month.

Commodities trading volume also improved last month.

SICOM rubber futures volume rose 9 per cent from a year earlier to 20,052 contracts. Also,  OTC iron ore swaps volume more than tripled from a year earlier to 29,763 contracts, equivalent to almost 15 million metric tonnes. Volume was 42 per cent up from July.

For clearing of derivatives, the volume of new interest rate swap transactions cleared rose 80 per cent to S$7.9 billion notional from a year earlier.

Since the November 2010 launch of IRS clearing, cumulative volume of swaps cleared has exceeded S$290 billion notional, the SGX noted.