Finance
MAS sets up review group in bid to revive its SGX development
Signage for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is displayed outside the central bank’s headquarters in Singapore.
Sam Kang Li | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Singapore’s central bank has established a task force to bolster the city-state’s stock market.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that the review group will evaluate measures to “improve the vibrancy” of the Singapore equities market.
MAS said on Friday the panel will focus on addressing market challenges, fostering listings, and facilitating market revitalization, as well as enhancing regulations to facilitate market growth and foster investor confidence.
It said another key goal will be to identify methods for encouraging private sector participation, including from capital market intermediaries, investors and listed companies.
The authority noted that a “dynamic equities market is an important part of the capital formation value chain,” and that a liquid market enables companies to not only access capital as they expand, but also “allows asset owners and the investing public to participate in the growth of quality companies.”
“Improving the attractiveness of Singapore’s equities market can therefore enhance Singapore’s standing as a vibrant enterprise and financial hub,” the MAS said, adding that this will also “[complement] Singapore’s innovation and start-up ecosystem, private markets, as well as asset and wealth management sectors.”
Despite the Straits Times Index rising in three of the last four years including 2024, Singapore’s stock market has been long plagued by thin trading volumes and more delistings than listings. This has led observers to describe the exchange as “boring,” “unexciting” and even once in 2021, a “zombie” bourse.
Turnover velocity at the SGX, a measure of market liquidity, stood at 36% for the whole of 2023, compared to 57.35% at the Hong Kong Exchange in the same period, and 103.6% at the Japan Exchange.
Analysts who previously spoke to CNBC outlined ways to revive interest in the SGX, including taking lessons from “value up programs” in Japan and South Korea.
The review group announced Friday will be chaired by Chee Hong Tat, Singapore’s second minister of finance, and also include members like Koh Boon Hwee, the current chairman of the SGX.
In this photo illustration, the Robinhood Markets, Inc. logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Retail brokerage firm Robinhood is launching a new tool for more sophisticated traders as it looks for additional avenues for growth.
On Wednesday, the firm introduced Robinhood Legend, a desktop-based platform for active traders. The offering includes advanced charting tools for users who want to do detailed analysis of stocks.
“In looking at the landscape of trading tools and by talking with active traders, we realized there is frustration with legacy offerings,” Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, said in a press release.
“Specifically, moving back and forth between apps or charting platforms can be cumbersome and time consuming. So we set out to reimagine what a modern, intuitively designed active trading platform should look like, and built Robinhood Legend from the ground up so traders can do what they need in one place,” Quirk said.
Beyond the launch of Legend, Robinhood also said it will soon add futures trading and index options to its mobile platform. Customers must be granted approval to trade futures contracts, according to the press release, and futures and index options will eventually be added to Legend as well.
The new additions for Robinhood are another example of the firm looking to expand beyond its roots as a convenient platform for small-dollar traders. The firm’s rise coincided with the “meme stock” phenomenon in early 2021 as retail trading boomed in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Robinhood shares, all-time
Since then, Robinhood has been steadily adding new offerings, including a credit card for Robinhood Gold subscribers and a digital wallet to hold cryptocurrencies.
Robinhood said that it had $139.7 billion in assets under custody at the end of the second quarter, along with 11.8 million monthly active users. For the comparable quarter in 2021, near the height of the GameStop mania, Robinhood reported $102 billion in assets but 21.3 million monthly active users. The firm’s next earnings report is scheduled for Oct. 30.
Shares of Robinhood are up more than 100% so far this year.
The announcements on Thursday were part of HOOD Summit, a conference for Robinhood’s customers.
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