Singapore Overtaking Mumbai for India Futures With Longer Trading Hours, Influx of Cheaper South Asian Traders

Bloomberg, 21 Sep 2014
Singapore is overtaking Mumbai as the biggest market for Indian stock-index futures, a sign of foreign investors’ growing influence over equities in the world’s second-most populous nation.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows open interest, or the number of outstanding contracts, for CNX Nifty Index futures on the Singapore Exchange Ltd. climbed 55 percent during the past four years to about 345,000. That compares with a 60 percent decline for similar contracts traded on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Singapore is luring foreign investors with longer hours and lower trading costs, Kotak Institutional Equities said in a report this month. Full story

OPINION: Think CPF Will Cover Your Home Loan? You’ll Rethink That Idea After Reading This

Yahoo! Finance Singapore, 20 May 2014
The CPF Valuation Limit (VL) Letter
Before you reach your VL limit, CPF will send a letter at least three months before you reach your VL limit.
Don’t ignore it!
That letter comes with one VERY important message:

You won’t be able to use your OA to service your mortgage UNLESS you set aside HALF the cash component of the Minimum Sum Scheme (MS), which is $74,000 (MS is $148,000) currently.

If you already have the MS set aside, you can take advantage of the AHWL. If not, you’ll need to start paying your mortgage repayments with cash until you do. Full story

SPH Reit to kick off Singapore IPO of up to $393 million today

Finance Asia, 10 Jul 2013
SPH Reit, the real estate investment trust that is sponsored by Singapore Press Holdings, has decided to go ahead and launch the institutional bookbuilding for its Singapore initial public offering today. The issuer had initially been expected to kick off the roadshow on June 20, but chose to hold off on the deal after it finished pre-marketing due to the volatile market environment.
SPH Reit is seeking to raise between S$475.9 million and S$503.9 million ($371 million to $393 million) from the base deal, which will account for 22.4% of the trust. Full story

Most Singaporeans do not have enough for retirement despite highest savings level among developed countries : survey

Yahoo! Finance Singapore, 11 Dec 2012
THE results of Aviva's latest survey did not throw up anything new — as with previous polls conducted by other life insurance companies in Singapore, it highlighted that Singaporeans are not saving enough for retirement. According to the Consumer Attitudes to Savings (CAS) Survey 2012, more than a third of people (38%) residing in the city-state have yet to institute a proper savings scheme for their post-working years.
The poll did reveal some insightful statistics concerning older Singaporeans aged 45 to 54, who are often described as at the peak of their career earnings cycle. A surprising 34% of this age group indicated in the CAS survey that they have yet to start saving for their retirement, even though the end of their working lives may be no more than a decade away for a good number of them.
Despite these worrying trends, one piece of good news is that Singapore has the highest average level of savings among 10 countries (the US, three Asian countries and six European nations) surveyed by Aviva in June. Full story