PENNY stock fever was gripping Singapore's stock market on Wednesday, with a whooping 6.96 billion shares having changed hands around 3pm.

But these units were worth only $932 million, showing the interest was in low-priced counters.

Much of the volume was generated by remisiers trading on their own accounts, as they tried to make a quick profit amid a general lack of business from retail clients.

The flavour of the day was Ipco International. Over 1.42 billion units of the stock had changed hands by around 3pm.

Penny stock fever has hit on several similar sessions in recent months. On Sept 12, some 9.8 billion shares were traded but these were worth only $1.76 billion.