SGX Finalises Changes To Minimum Bids Schedule For Securities Market

Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is pleased to announce the final changes to the minimum bids schedule for the securities market. The new schedule, which will be implemented by January 2008, seeks to improve trading efficiency and market liquidity.

Mr Gan Seow Ann, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Markets at SGX said, "With a narrower bid-ask spread, market participants can expect greater efficiency in trade execution. The changes will enhance the overall competitiveness of our securities market. I would like to thank our market participants and the public for their valuable response to our public consultation."

The final changes include:

1) Reducing the minimum bid sizes for securities¹ priced above $3.00;
2) Customising the minimum bid structures for Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), bonds, debentures, loan stocks; and Hong Kong Dollar as well as Japanese Yen denominated securities traded on SGX; and

3) Widening the threshold for member firms' forced orders key from the current +/- 6 bids to +/-10 bids for the main securities products²

¹ 'securities' exclude ETFs, bonds, debentures, loan stocks and those securities traded in Japanese Yen and Hong Kong Dollar.

² 'main securities products' exclude ETFs, bonds, debentures and loan stocks.

The details of the final changes are shown in Appendix 1.