It seemed just a short while ago when i penned this
post 12 months ago!
Time really files and i am sad to report that this must be the worst ever IPO drought I have ever experienced other than during GFC... we only had 3 small Catalist listings for the first 6 months this year (versus 10 for the same period last year).
I spoke to a few bankers doing ECM here this week and they are all looking for new jobs or roles. Mr. Loh Boon Chye, the
newly appointed CEO of SGX, has a huge task in front of him to lure listings back to Singapore. Hope the new team can bring forth new ideas to revitalize the market here. I do have a few "suggestions" for him:
- Bring back the lunch hour - let the brokers and dealers have a decent lunch so that they can trade better in the afternoon
- Increase the brokerage commission - help improve the livelihood of dealers and remisiers and they will take care of you
- Increase the bid-ask spread - the market needs volatility to thrive and traders will love you
- Get brokerage or insurance firm to bear the credit default risk and not passed those risk to the remisiers who make negligible commission!
Despite the drought, there is a silver lining!
The only thing positive is my fans (yes you!) grew from 2,706 this time last year to 3,685 today. This is a growth of 36%... ^_^
A big Thank You to all of you and hope the IPO market revives soon!
Comments
I beg to differ relating to the lunch hour issue.
I believe HK has the same system and this could be the reason why Hang Seng is so vibrant and healthy in terms of volume.
Initially, I was also against the no lunch trading for securities houses.
But now I think it helps those who work to have a chance to trade during their lunch break. Many employees have very strict lunch hours and lunch time trading is their only chance to look at the market.
Logical deduction tells us that the additional one and a half hours of trading will concomitantly boost trading volume.