A stock exchange is referred to an organization where bonds, stocks and other securities are purchased and sold. The Stock Exchange of Singapore was formed in the year 1973 as a result of discontinuation of currency interchangeability between the two nations, namely, Singapore and Malaysia. This led to the separation of the stock exchange of both the countries. This separation led to the formation of Stock Exchange of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Bhd.

Singapore’s stock exchange, called as Singapore Exchange Limited, was set up in December 01, 1999. Singapore Exchange Limited was the result of a merger between Singapore International Monetary Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Singapore. Singapore International Monetary Exchange was regarded as the futures exchange and was set up in the year 1984.

Singapore Exchange Limited offers different types of derivatives and securities products with the help of a wide network of broking members located across the globe. The derivatives products include trading and international risk management instruments. The securities products of Singapore Exchange Limited which are traded on electronic screen system, include exchange traded funds (ETFs), business trusts, infrastructure funds, warrants, bonds, global depository receipts (GDRs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), loan stocks, debentures and equities.

In the first half of financial year 2009, Singapore Exchange Limited reported a net profit of $159.2 million. This profit is lower than the profit earned in the first half of financial year 2008 by 36.9%. The net profit in the first half of financial year 2008 was $252.4 million which was its biggest half-yearly profit ever since it became listed. Operating expenses fell by 8.2% to $109.2 million. Operating revenues witnessed a fall of 27.9% to $304.9 million. In the first half of financial year 2009, the securities daily average trading value fell 53.6% to stand at $1.2 billion. In the first half of financial year 2008, the value was $2.5 billion.

But in the derivatives market, there was an increase in derivatives trading volume (in the first half of financial year 2009) by 32.6% to 32.6 million contracts as against 24.5 million contracts in the first half of financial year 2008. This was mainly due to a potential Asian equity derivative trading. While Nikkei 225 reported 14.8 million contracts as against 12 million contracts in the first half of financial year 2008, CNX Nifty reported 6.3 million contracts compared to 1.0 million contracts in the first half of financial year 2008. MSCI Taiwan reported 8.6 million contracts compared to 7.6 million contracts in the first half of financial year 2008.