[SINGAPORE] The Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported a 50.8 per cent year-on-year rise in its securities turnover volume, as demand for local equities maintained its momentum on the local bourse.
The exchange said in a release on Wednesday (Oct 8) that trading volume reached 38.6 billion securities in September, up from 25.6 billion in the same month last year.
Securities turnover value rose to S$33.3 billion in the month, a 9.7 per cent climb from the previous corresponding period’s S$30.4 billion. The daily average value stood at S$1.5 billion in September 2025, a 4.7 per cent year-on-year climb.
Continued demand for Singapore equities resulted in daily average value for the July-to-September quarter reaching S$1.5 billion, which the bourse noted was the highest quarterly figure since 2021.
Retail participation by proportion and traded value was also the greatest in four years, SGX said, while daily average value in exchange-traded funds hit S$39.2 million in September – the biggest since March 2020.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) broke records during the quarter, fuelled by rate-cut optimism and a S$5 billion liquidity injection under the Equity Market Development Programme.
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SGX noted that the STI outperformed most of its Asean peers in September, with a 20 per cent year-on-year rise and a new peak of 4,356 points that month.
Open interest levels in the exchange’s MSCI Singapore Index Futures contracts reached US$7.9 billion notional, a 48 per cent year-on-year expansion, on increased institutional investor participation.
The exchange also noted that its initial public offering activity raised a total of S$2.2 billion from July to September, marking the highest quarterly fundraising amount since 2017.
These included the listing of Centurion Accommodation Real Estate Investment Trust and AvePoint’s secondary listing on the mainboard, as well as Skylink’s and MetaOptics’ trading debuts on the Catalist.
Derivatives records
Meanwhile, derivatives trading volume rose 5.9 per cent from the year-ago period to 30.6 million contracts in September, SGX said, citing increased portfolio hedging activity.
The exchange noted that its suite of commodities derivatives – iron ore, petrochemical and dairy contracts – hit a record in the quarter, driven by hedging activity amid global economic uncertainty.
Expectations for higher infrastructure spending in China drove the daily average volumes of SGX’s benchmark iron ore derivatives up 35 per cent from the previous quarter, reaching an all-time high of 322,168 lots.
Meanwhile, open interest in its petrochemical derivatives hit record averages of 3.7 million tonnes, and its dairy contracts recorded a monthly average peak of 196,836 lots in September.
Amid a continued rally in Chinese equities, SGX’s FTSE China A50 Index Futures contracts volume rose to 11.3 million in September, growing 7.6 per cent on the year. For the quarter, the bourse noted that daily average volumes in the contract jumped 23 per cent from the level in September 2024.
Shares of SGX closed S$0.05 or 0.3 per cent higher at S$17.70 on Wednesday, before the news.