Singapore, 5 April 2010

Singapore Exchange ( SGX) said on Monday that its securities and commodities markets reported strong trading growth in March this year. According to a statement by the SGX, total securities trading value was up 48 percent in March year-on-year to 30.4 billion Singapore dollars (about 21.8 billion U.S. dollars), reflecting the return of investors' confidence and interests.

Securities trading value on Catalist, the sponsor-supervised listing platform for local and international growth companies, reached 378 million Singapore dollars(about 270 million U.S. dollars), nine times higher year-on-year.

In terms of derivatives and commodities markets, overall volume dipped 2 percent due to muted volatility in the market. However, trading of equity index options more than doubled to 28,699 contracts year-on-year.

Trading in Singapore Commodity Exchange ( SICOM) rose 54 percent to 36,701 contracts year-on-year, signaling the increasing interest in commodities. SICOM Gold Contract made its successful debut on March 30 with 17,060 lots traded in the first two days of trading.

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