Membership, trading volume, turnover at all time high
SINGAPORE, July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), the first trans-Asian multi-product commodity and currency derivatives exchange, set a new record yesterday when the trading volume hit a historic high of 9,659 contracts and the turnover crossed USD 350 million. Trading on SMX has consistently witnessed a surge in trading volumes and turnover over the last few weeks.
SMX which went live on August 31, 2010 has seen its membership number double over the past 11 months crossing 50. The exchange had started with 25 members and four contracts and today has more than 50 members, including 7 clearing members and 11 contracts. Among the leading clearing members signed-up thus far include Newedge, Ong First, Morgan Stanley, UOB, ICICI Bank, Citi and Phillip Futures. The prominent trade members include Glencore, Total Global Steel, Trafigura, Vitol and TransMarket.
Ang Swee Tian, Chairman of SMX, said: "Since inception SMX has focused on putting in place robust systems and risk management processes and we are now reaching an inflection point. The confidence and support in the marketplace will help SMX position Singapore as the epicentre of the global commodities trading from Asia."
Jignesh Shah, Vice Chairman, SMX and Group CEO - Financial Technologies Group said, "SMX is like an infrastructure project and we have enough experience of setting up and managing successfully greenfield exchanges across various continents. It is heartening that one of our most prestigious global projects -- SMX -- is on the right track to become an Asian hub of commodities trading and price benchmarking for the world."
V Hariharan, interim CEO of SMX, said: "The team at SMX is quite happy with the new milestones and we are looking at growing the traction further as new Asia centric contracts get launched over the next few weeks. We are enhancing the currency basket and will also be looking at some agri and non-agri contracts in the days to come."
SMX had gone live on August 31, 2010 with futures contracts for Singapore deliverable gold, physically-settled currency pair Euro-USD, WTI crude and Brent crude priced in Euros. The introduction of the GBP-USD and cash settled Euro-USD contracts on July 29, 2011 will take the total number of contracts available on SMX to 11. SMX had earlier introduced the AUD-USD and USD-JPY futures from April 29, 2011. This was in addition to the cash-settled gold, silver and copper futures which commenced trading on SMX from April 15, 2011.
SMX trading sessions span Asian, European and US business hours, with central counterparty clearing performed by SMXCC. The SMX platform allows remote participation through its diverse network of members and ISVs. The Exchange also offers its own proprietary front-end solution for direct market access.
About Singapore Mercantile Exchange
Singapore Mercantile Exchange is a pan-Asian multi-product commodity and currency derivatives exchange situated in Singapore. It offers a comprehensive platform for trading a diversified basket of commodities including futures and options contracts on precious metals, base metals, agriculture commodities, energy, currencies and indices.
SMX offers market participants the benefits of market transparency, time zone convenience, price discovery and benchmarking, price risk management and multiple connectivity options. Counterparty clearing and settlement risk is effectively managed through its clearing house, the Singapore Mercantile Exchange Clearing Corporation (SMXCC).
The regulator of Singapore's financial markets -- the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) -- granted SMX 'Approved Exchange' status in 2010.
SMX is backed by the world's leading creator of exchanges -- Financial Technologies (India) Limited -- which has successfully established 10 exchanges across India, Dubai, Singapore, Africa, Mauritius and Bahrain.
SMX is a member of leading international derivatives industry associations, such as the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the Swiss Futures and Options Association (SFOA), the Association of Futures Markets (AFM) and the Futures and Options Association (FOA).
More information is available through www.smx.com.sg. For queries Email: info@smx.com.sg.
For SMX media enquiries, please contact:
Hasmita Rajan
Marketing Communications
Tel: +65-6590-3754
Mobile: +65-9855-1507
Email: hasmita.rajan@smx.com.sg
Vishwesh Iyer
Think Public Relations
Mobile: +65-9101-8487
Email: vishwesh@thinkprapac.com
