Singapore Exchange (SGX) has announced its securities market will trade continuously all day from 1 August to enable pan-Asian securities investors to respond to regional market movements and news flow.
SGX's securities market will be open for trading between 9.00 and 5.00 Singapore time in line with the exchange's derivatives market. SGX had previously intended to eliminate its securities market's one-hour lunch break on 1 March but delayed the decision following market feedback.
In Asia, Korea Exchange, India's National Stock Exchange and Australian Securities Exchange already trade non-stop all day, while other international exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and London Stock Exchange also operate continuous trading sessions.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to shorten its 90-minute lunch break to one hour – 11.30-12.30 – but the Japanese exchange has postponed the extension of trading hours until autumn 2011 at the earliest.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) is planning to lengthen its own opening hours, cutting its two-hour lunch break first to 90 minutes and then one hour.
Once trading is continuous all day, SGX member firms will offer retail investors a wider range of execution channels including online trading services, the use of central dealing desks where orders can be channelled for order execution in the absence of trading representatives or brokers, the appointment of a back-up trading representative, and the use of mobile technology by trading representatives to execute orders when they are off-premises.
“Continuous all-day trading will offer all investors more opportunities to trade and manage their risks. By embracing trading hours which are aligned with those of other key markets, Singapore will make further progress as an international financial hub,” said Magnus Bocker, CEO of SGX.