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Singapore Exchange, operator of the city’s derivatives and securities exchange, decided to scrap its midday trading break from March 1 after bigger rivals Hong Kong and Japan moved to reduce lunch breaks.
“Investors are constantly seeking trading opportunities, and continuous all-day securities trading will provide more avenues for participants to invest, hedge and arbitrage their investments,” Chief Executive Officer Magnus Bocker said in a statement today. “This will make Singapore one of the most accessible markets in Asia and in the world.” Eliminating the break could boost trading volumes by between 8 percent and 10 percent, Bocker said in July.
“Investors are constantly seeking trading opportunities, and continuous all-day securities trading will provide more avenues for participants to invest, hedge and arbitrage their investments,” Chief Executive Officer Magnus Bocker said in a statement today. “This will make Singapore one of the most accessible markets in Asia and in the world.” Eliminating the break could boost trading volumes by between 8 percent and 10 percent, Bocker said in July.
The removal of the bourse’s trading break will add Singapore to Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to the list of Asia-Pacific markets that trade without an interval. Singapore’s trading day now runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. local time, followed by a 90 minute break and an afternoon session between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange said Nov. 24 it will shorten its lunch break to one hour from 90 minutes. That follows the announcement by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, operator of Asia’s third-biggest stock market, on Nov. 22 that it plans to cut its two-hour noon break by half and start trading 30 minutes earlier
‘BYGONE RELIC’
“Lunch breaks during the trading day are a relic of days gone by,” Larry Tabb, founder and chief executive officer of Westborough, Massachusetts-based research firm Tabb Group LLC, said in an email. “Since machines are increasingly managing executions, and the volume of trading is steadily increasing, there is increased demand to trade through the lunch break.”
Bocker, who joined the exchange in December 2009, has taken steps to enhance trading by introducing 19 American depositary receipts of Chinese companies and investing $250 million in an order-processing system that may be the world’s fastest when it starts this year. The bourse is also awaiting approvals for its A$8.4 billion ($10.7 billion) takeover offer for ASX, Australia’s main exchange operator, that was announced in October.
