SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Nearly US$5.5 billion (S$7.47 billion) in market capitalisation is expected to vanish from the Singapore Exchange when companies like global container shipper Neptune Orient Lines and rail operator SMRT delist, according to a Wall Street Journal report this week.

About 14 companies to date this year have announced plans to exit from the bourse - more than twice the amount of new listings during the period. They include Tiger Airways, Osim and Eu Yan Sang.

The combined market capitalisation of Singapore's stock exchange has fallen to less than S$664 billion from more than S$740 billion two years ago, according to the Journal report.

The trend is not limited to Singapore, though the Journal noted it has been hit hard by the global decline in the popularity of going public.

The number of listed companies globally slid 6 per cent between 2008 and the end of 2015, to 43,539, said the Journal, quoting figures from the World Federation of Exchanges. Global market capitalisation in the same period, though, has nearly doubled to US$61.8 trillion from US$32.3 trillion because of cheap credit, it said.