Singapore Exchange (SGX) Share Price and Stock Investing Info | Focus on Singapore Stock Market Today

What is SGX?

Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is a Singapore-based firm that offers a platform for listing and trading securities and derivatives. The exchange hosts a variety of tradable financial instruments such as derivatives, depository receipts, ETFs and structured warrants, among others. (Source: sgx.com)

SGX history and operations

SGX has been around since 1999 and was created through a consolidation of three companies that previously offered exchange services in Singapore. The companies were Securities Clearing and Computer Services (SCCS), Singapore International Monetary Exchange (Simex) and the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES). SGX shares commenced trading in November 2000. (Source: sgx.com/about-us)

SGX offers a variety of services that include listing, depository, settlement, trading and data services. It provides those services while maintaining high regulatory standards. The exchange has the following subsidiaries.

• The Baltic Exchange which is the only maritime market information platform in the world that offers settlement and trading of derivatives and physical contracts.
• Scientific Beta, an independent index platform that deals with smart beta strategies with a particular focus on risk-managed and factor-based solutions.
• BidFX- a cloud-based online platform that provides forex trading services.
• Marketnode- a blockchain-based digital asset platform that leverages tokenization and ledger technologies to provide easier trading for traditional products available in the capital markets.

SGX management

The Singapore-based exchange has so far enjoyed a lot of success during the two decades of operations. The company attributes part of that success to having the right people navigating it the right way and in the right direction. Here is a list of the SGX’s management team.

• Loh Boon Chye- chief executive officer.
• Matthew Song- Senior vice president.
• Arulraj Devadoss- Executive VP and head of human resources.
• Tinku Gupta- Chief technology officer and senior managing director.
• Kin Ng- head of indices, data and connectivity.
• Lay Chng- Chief financial officer.
• Thanabalan Ladamuthu- finance head.
• Michael Syn- head of equities.
• June Sim-head of listing compliance and senior VP.
• Peter Shen- head of technology strategy and transformation.
• Glenn Seah- executive in charge of legal and compliance.
• Joycelyn Goh- human resources business partner.
• Joan Yap- Vice president of human resources.
• Carolyn Lim- head of regulatory communications and marketing.
• Adeline Ee- head of FICC sales and global equities.
• Jarod Ong- head of operations-
• Gilbert Gan- head of security engineering and design.
• Tom Enger- VP of market development, strategy and FICC.
• Tiew Tan- Senior VP of technology shared services and operations.
• Solomon Tay- Head of information security and IT controls.
• KC Lam- Lead specialist.
• Rahan Ahmed- Head of digital assets
• John Ong- VP of human resources and head of learning and development.
• Bernie Lee- head of enterprise and co-location DC operations.

SGX share price and performance

SGX shares are traded publicly under the ticker S68.SI. SGX share price closed the latest trading session at 9.82 SGD with a market cap of 10.533 billion SGD. The range for the past 52-weeks is between 7.96 SGD and 10.72 SGD, which means that the share price is currently trading on the upper range.

The stock is currently trading at levels experienced before the pandemic, meaning that the share price has fully recovered. However, the past months have been quite interesting. For example, the share price dipped from above 9 SGD in February and by March 9, 2020, the price traded as low as 8.47 SGD. However, the price had recovered by mid-April and even peaked at 9.85 SGD, around the same time that further restrictions were put in place to curb the viral spread.

Consequently, the stock price plummeted to sub-8 SGD levels before eventually recovering gradually in the second half of 2020. The SGX share price had soared above 10 SGD in the first week of January 2021 and it is currently trading just below that level.

SGX dividend policy

SGX has a strong commitment to providing value for shareholders, as reflected by the company’s dividend history. The company has maintained a healthy dividend payout since 2001. Its first dividend payout was 5.5 cents per share while its lowest dividend payout was 5.1 cents per share in 2003. After that, the payouts increased over the years with the highest payout at 38 cents per share in 2008.

The dividend price per share pulled back to 26 cents per share in 2009 largely due to the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. It has since then enjoyed small increments that have seen it recover above 30 cents per share in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The last dividend payout in FY20 was 30.5 cents per share.

The dividend policy has favored investors for the past decade considering that the share price has not soared by too much ever since the company was created. Dividend increments allow shareholders to continue enjoying value that is not heavily eroded from their shareholding. SGX currently has a forward dividend and yield rate of 3.26% and a trailing 12-month PE ratio of 21.21. SGD. It also boasts a TTM earnings per share of 0.46 cents.

Forward-looking developments

SGX is reportedly working on a new platform for bonds trading in Asia. The company recently revealed that it entered into a joint venture through which it will develop the bonds trading platform called Trumid XT with its partners, Hillhouse Capital and Trumid.

“Trumid XT will connect the commercial footprint and liquidity from SGX’s Bond Pro and Trumid’s Market Center in the United States to provide a robust network for trading of Asian fixed income.” (Source: yahoo.com)

The announcement underscores SGX’s commitment to making more investment opportunities more accessible to investors, while at the same time expanding its list of offerings to become more attractive to investors. Such a move is also expected to generate more revenue for the company, and subsequently for its shareholders. It is also expected to pay way for more growth in the future.

In addition to the new bonds platform launch, SGX is optimistic about more growth in 2021 especially now that investors are regaining confidence. 2020 was a challenging year for many investors due to the economic slump caused by the global pandemic. Regained investor confidence and investments especially in SGX listed securities have already been evident in the markets recovery over the past few weeks and there is more room for growth as normalcy returns. (Source: zuuonline.sg).