SGX Hits New FX Peak as Last Group of Venues Reports

Singapore Exchange has reported its highest FX turnover to date in November, with several contract records, while CLS had its second busiest month in spot, second only to March 2020.

SGX recorded daily volume records for USD/CNH, KRW/USD and INR/USD futures contracts as those pairs came into focus following the US election. Total FX futures traded was 6.116 million, a 14.9% increase from October and up 50% year-on-year – notably, while SGX publishes total, rather than average daily volumes, November 2024 had one fewer trading days than November 2023 and two fewer than October 2024.

The exchange’s biggest FX contract, USD/CNH hit a new high at 3.813 million contracts traded, this is up 22.6% month-on-month and up 43% year-on-year. SGX also says more than 38% of RMB volumes were traded outside of Asian hours in the overnight T+1 session.

The group’s second busiest contract, USD/INR, saw a drift lower from October, recording total volume of just under 1.7 million in November. This is down 3.8% from October, but up 50% year-on-year – there was also a healthy increase in KRW contracts, up by 141% year-on-year (+40% month-on-month) to 383,100 contracts.

Meanwhile, CLS, reflecting the higher volatility in November, had its second busiest month in spot FX volume settled at $564 billion per day. This is up 11.9% from October and up 12.1% year-on-year. Total volume settled at CLS was unchanged from October at $2.204 trillion, there was a good gain of 15.4% from October and 4.5% year-on-year in outright forwards at $210 billion per day, however the gains in spot and outrights were erased by FX swaps, which drifted lower by 5.8% from October to $1.43 trillion. Year-on-year, FX swaps activity is up 6.2% at CLS.

Elsewhere, LSEG FX reports spot ADV of $104 billion, up 8.3% from October and up 13% year-on-year. Perhaps indicating the surge in activity in EUR, JPY and CNH after the US election, LSEG underperforms its fellow primary venue, EBS, across both time horizons. LSEG also saw a decline from October in non-spot ADV, reporting $385 billion per day from $399 billion last month – this is, however, up 12.9% year-on-year.

In contrast, Deutsche Börse’s 360T saw an increase in non-spot activity in November on both a month-on-month and year-on-year basis. Overall volume at the venue was EUR 149.9 billion, up 5% from October and up 22.7% year-on-year, while (using a fixed exchange rate), non-spot activity rose 3.8% from October and 24.1% year-on-year, to $122.4 billion. Earlier in the month, 360T reported a month-on-month drop in NDF volumes, but a solid rise in spot activity.