SINGAPORE - The Singapore Exchange's (SGX) total securities market turnover value has been on the uptrend, thanks largely to a robust recovery in the tech manufacturing and commodities as Singapore's exports picked up, and growth in property and bank stocks.

The securities daily average value (SDAV) for the first half this year grew 7 per cent from the first half last year. Securities market turnover jumped 15 per cent for the first half this year from the second half of last year.

The so-called Trump trade - betting on stocks in hopes that the United States President Donald Trump's policies will boost economic growth - fuelled a global equities rally including in Singapore.

"In the world of rising interest rates and Trump, Asia has done reasonably ok. Singapore is behind India, Korea and Taiwan, but closely tracking Hong Kong in terms of total returns in US dollars," Mr Chew Sutat, SGX head of equities and fixed income, told media in a first half 2017 stock market update yesterday.

"While the Singapore market is very consistent, volatility here is lower than in the rest of the other Asian markets. We don't have the excitement of China's markets, but we also don't have the disasters that happen. Short term hedge und traders are starting to figure out that ... Singapore is a safe market to extract value."

The combined market-cap weighted total returns of the best performing sectors - IT, energy, banks, industrial and telco stocks for each of the past 12 months was about 81 per cent. This compares with the Straits Times Index's total return of about 18 per cent.

"Technology had a good year globally, especially on Nasdaq last month. Singapore was not left behind. The tech sector here was rerated with a better recognition of local tech firms that have been around for a long time. New tech stocks or those tied to data centres and hardware are beneficiaries of this revolution," Mr Chew said.