SINGAPORE - An average of S$1.32 billion of trades took place each session in March on the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) securities market, a 4.3 per cent improvement over year-ago levels, according to data released by the market operator on Friday (April 6).

For the first quarter of 2018, SDAV (securities daily average value traded) increased 16.7 per cent to S$1.45 billion.

Total turnover in March 2018 was 4.8 per cent lower year-on-year at S$27.7 billion, however, due to having only 21 trading days. There were 23 trading sessions in March 2017.

The higher turnover, which measures the value of trades done, was largely due to share prices having climbed up over the year. The actual number of traded shares, however, fell compared to the previous year.

Average daily traded volume in March 2018 declined by 26.3 per cent to 1.8 billion shares. Total volume for the month fell 32.7 per cent to 37.9 billion shares.

For the first quarter, daily average traded volume slid 16 per cent to 2.1 billion shares, while total volume shrank 17.3 per cent to 129.1 billion shares.

In the derivatives market, derivatives daily average volume (DDAV) grew 18.5 per cent in March to 822,594 contracts. DDAV for the first quarter increased 36 per cent to 903,761 contracts.

The amount of overnight positions as at end-March 2018 stood at 4.7 million contracts, a 9.5 per cent year-on-year improvement. The SGX tracks open interest, which refers to outstanding overnight contracts, as an indicator of how much money is flowing into its derivatives market.

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