The Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) saw a substantial increase in volumes in its securities borrowing and lending (SBL) program in April, with a daily average outstanding loans under the program totaling S$26.9 million, up 39% from a year earlier.
The exchanges SBL program has been in place since 2002. Keng Kian, vice president, Depository and Settlement, SGX said that in October 2010, it tripled the number of securities covered by the SBL program to about 600 equities, as part of efforts to expand the service. From 7 May we added another 30 securities i.e. REITs and Business Trusts, to the SBL program which now covers 80% of SGX listed securities. We have also been actively marketing the program to retail investors who are potential lenders.
In other areas, the exchange said derivatives and clearing volumes grew in April from a year earlier but securities activity declined. Securities turnover was 27% lower year-on-year at S$23.5 billion; securities daily average value (SDAV) declined 27% to S$1.2 billion. Compared with March 2012, SDAV was 10% down.
Derivatives volume rose 29% year-on-year to 6.3 million contracts; daily average volume (DAV) grew 28% to 322,213 contracts. On a month-on-month basis, DAV fell 9%.
Volume of commodity contracts cleared grew 40% year-on-year to 13,974 contracts; iron ore swaps volume more than doubled to 7,646 contracts and sub-bitumen coal swaps activity also more than doubled to 635 contracts.
Volume of interest rate swaps cleared rose 11% year-on-year to S$45.7 billion, bringing the cumulative volume since the November 2010 launch to S$258.4 billion. Volume of new IRS transactions cleared doubled to S$11.3 billion from a year earlier.
(JDC)