SINGAPORE: Singapore stock traders may finally get their
lunch break back.
Singapore Exchange Ltd, which runs the city’s equity market,
is considering reinstating the midday intermission, according to people
familiar with the matter.
SGX in March 2011 scrapped the break, which lasted from
12.30pm to 2pm every day in an effort to boost trading.
The bourse is expected to have a public consultation on the
issue in the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified as the
information is private.
SGX will also propose a test that would widen the price
increment at which shares are quoted to bring day traders back, according to
the people.
The proposals come after traders and SGX officials had several
meetings since Loh Boon Chye became chief executive officer in July 2015, the
people said.
When SGX cut the midday break, then-CEO Magnus Bocker said
in January 2011 the move would make Singapore “one of the most accessible
markets in Asia and in the world.” Having continuous trading from 9am to 5pm
could also boost volume by as much as 10%, Bocker said.
Many Asian stock markets have a midday break, including Hong
Kong, mainland China and Malaysia.
The daily average value of shares traded on SGX this year
has risen 6.4%, to US$809mil, compared with the average for 2016, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg.
While up from last year, it’s down from US$1.12bil a day in
2013, the year of a penny-stock crash that has been blamed for shaking
confidence in the city’s markets. An average of US$1.18bil shares changed hands
each day in 2010, before the intermission was abolished, the data show.
SGX said in an e-mailed response to queries that it doesn’t
comment on speculation.
The exchange’s tick-size proposal would reward brokers for
making markets in less liquid stocks by widening the spread they earn when
buying and selling shares, the people said.
That could encourage trading in small-cap companies, they
said.
If the plan goes ahead, it would be at least the third time
in a decade that SGX has tweaked stock spreads.
In 2011, it cut tick sizes to offer what it called “one of
Asia’s most cost-competitive trading environments.” It made a similar move in
2007.
The US in October started a two-year test that raised ticks
for small-company stocks amid complaints from exchanges that liquidity has
dried up.
Japan Exchange Group in December 2014 said it was
backtracking on tick cuts for some of the biggest companies less than six
months after it was implemented because it failed to get the boost it sought.
SGX in 2015 cut the board lot size, or trading unit,
investors needed to buy to 100 from 1,000 to help make higher-priced shares
easier to invest.
Last year, it consulted on having at least 10% of shares in
the initial public offering of companies on its main venue to boost retail participation.