Singapore’s equity market is looking increasingly unloved. Last year the city-state’s stock exchange suffered the indignity of being overtaken in terms of trading volume by its Thai counterpart, knocking Singapore into second place in southeast Asia for the first time. More recently it was also overhauled by Japannext, a relatively small trading platform that competes with the Tokyo bourse.
This makes SGX, the Singapore exchange, Asia’s ninth-largest share market – a frustrating state of affairs for an exchange that prides itself on being “the Asian gateway” for investors in the region.
Singapore’s problems – a combination of low trading volume, or liquidity; relatively high transaction costs; and a dearth of big-ticket initial public offerings – were highlighted on Wednesday when SGX reported a 22 per cent fall in net profit for the third quarter. Full story
