Published January 7, 2009

SGX posts record derivatives trades

By JAMIE LEE

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DERIVATIVE and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) set new trading records last year, the bourse said yesterday.

Total derivatives volume hit nearly 62 million contracts - higher than its previous record in 2007 by almost 38 per cent.

This was thanks to a more than eight-fold surge in the number of CNX Nifty Index futures contracts to 12.4 million contracts from 2007's 1.44 million contracts.

Other key future contracts - the Nikkei 225, MSCI Taiwan and MSCI Singapore - registered double- digit percentage growth.

The top contributor was Nikkei 225 contracts, which make up about 40 per cent of the total volume. The number of contracts rose 19 per cent to 26.1 million contracts from 21.9 million contracts in 2007.

MSCI Taiwan futures contract volume rose 24 per cent to 16.9 million from 13.6 million in 2007.

MSCI Singapore futures contract volume rose 16 per cent to 4.64 million contracts from 2007's 4.01 million contracts.

SGX added that turnover in the total futures and options market for the first nine months of 2008 alone had exceeded full-year 2007 figures.

This was followed by a record month in October, when 6.86 million contracts were traded.

Hong Kong also hit records in the derivatives market last year. The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing - which has offered 14 futures and options contracts as at last year - registered a record 101 million in volume up to Dec 15, 2008, data on its website showed.

This beat the 88 million contract volume registered at the end of 2007.

As for ETFs, SGX said total trading value in 2008 stood at $2.94 billion - more than double the earlier record of $1.15 billion in 2007. SGX (which has 24 ETFs) said the increase in value was due to active trading in the iShares MSCI India ETF, Lyxor ETF China Enterprise (Hang Seng China Enterprise Index), Lyxor ETF India, SPDR Gold Shares and streetTRACKS STI Fund.

'We are encouraged by the increase in trading value, and have a pipeline of ETF listings in 2009 that will further facilitate investor access to more asset classes and geographies,' said Andrew Ler, SGX's head of private investors.