SINGAPORE - The average daily value of trades on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) rose 12 per cent year-on-year in April to $1.3 billion although the average daily volume fell 26 per cent to 1.8 billion shares, according to the latest statistics from the market operator.

Total turnover for April was $26.7 billion from 21 trading days, up 24 per cent from a year ago, when there were 19 trading days. Total traded volume for the month was 37.9 billion shares, down 18 per cent. The Straits Times Index gained 14 per cent year-on-year to 3,613.93 as at end-April. Month-on-month, the bluechip index rose 5 per cent.

The year-to-date average daily turnover grew 15 per cent to $1.4 billion, while the average daily traded volume in the first four months of 2018 fell 18 per cent to 2.0 billion shares.

The total turnover from January to April was $116.6 billion, up 17 per cent year-on-year. Total volume over the same period was 167 billion shares, down 17 per cent.

In the derivatives market, average daily trading volume gained 9 per cent year-on-year to 800,107 contracts in April. Total volume in April grew 12 per cent to 15.2 million contracts, while open interest at the end of the month rose 17 per cent to 5.0 million contracts. Open interest refers to overnight positions, and a rising trend suggests that new money is flowing into the market.

The volume of trades in SGX's FTSE China A50 Index futures increased 11 per cent in April to 5.8 million contracts, while the Nikkei 225 Index futures saw volumes shrink 2 per cent to 1.6 million contracts. The volume of Nifty 50 Index futures traded gained 3 per cent to 1.7 million contracts amid some uncertainty about the future of the contract. India's National Stock Exchange has said that it will stop supporting the contract after August, although the SGX said in February that it expects to have a successor product in time for the change.