Singapore Exchange to offer custom indexes to expand

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Singapore Exchange will offer custom indexes services as the bourse seeks to broaden its earnings base.

"Offering index services to diversify the market data business is common amongst exchanges," Tinku Gupta, head of market data and connectivity at the exchange said in a statement Monday. "It helps us in attracting new institutional channels."

Singapore Exchange, which enjoys a monopoly over share trading in the Asian city, joins peers elsewhere in expanding into the indexes space and wants to build it into a regional business.

Deutsche Boerse AG in July agreed to buy the rest of its indexing business Stoxx AG while the London Stock Exchange Group Plc in 2014 bought Frank Russell Co. for US$2.7 billion (S$3.8 billion) to bolster its FTSE International Ltd. indexes business. Owning an index operator makes it easier to provide futures and options contracts based on different gauges.

Singapore Exchange has sought new revenue streams as its cash equities business stagnates. Revenue from derivatives jumped 64 percent in the three months through June.

While the average daily value of shares traded in the Singapore market increased 9.1 percent to S$1.2 billion in the quarter, it's well below the S$1.7 billion that changed hands every day before 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Shares of the company rose 2.2 percent to S$7.32 on Monday.

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