Why Singapore stocks listed on SGX is in dire situation with cooling interest…

It has been quite long since that there is not much interest in transactions in stocks listed on Singapore stock exchange SGX. 

Why?

I suspect it may have to do with poor corporate governance regulation and enforcement.  It was like not too long ago that there are strings of companies being reported to have committed accounting fraud, financial scandals, cash purported to be deposited in the banks are actually not there, receivables and inventory that don’t really exist etc!  Despite of all that, the worst is that none of those responsible has been brought to task and before the Court in Singapore!  So basically, these people are getting away with committing all those frauds! 

Furthermore, for those stocks that have since been suspended since problems have been discovered, there does not seem to be much effort shown by SGX to get these stocks removed from suspension and being traded again. 

All the above are probably reasons why retail investors are now cool to stocks listed on SGX!  For me, for quite some time now, I have invested in stocks listed in US, UK, Germany, HK etc but not in Singapore as well.  No serious investor will want to buy/sell stocks listed on Exchanges where there are little transaction volumes and where even the locals are not even interested to participate.......…  

New SGX trading rules - The issue that has yet to be tackled

Recently, SGX has came out with a slew of changes for stock trading on Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), and you can see this news, title "New SGX trading rules: What you need to know" at this URL...

In particular, I don't see how the new rules will help the young investors and small investors, as claimed in the article:

" Board lot size reduction

What is this?
This move cuts the minimum purchase "lot" of SGX-listed securities from 1,000 to 100 units.

That means you will be able to buy just 100 DBS shares, for example, instead of having to purchase a minimum of 1,000, which is the case currently. For example, to invest in pricier blue chips like DBS, which closed at $17.92 last Friday, you would need to put up $17,920 to buy 1,000 DBS shares. But under the new rule, you can buy 100 shares for $1,792.

How does it benefit investors?
This will make blue chips and index component stocks more affordable and help investors build portfolios with a smaller capital outlay.

Young investors with typically smaller cash reserves will have a wider range of equities to choose from, while longstanding investors can diversify further into blue chips.

For example, an investor could easily build an equity portfolio by buying 100 DBS shares, 200 Keppel Corp shares, 100 Jardine C&C shares and 300 Global Logistics Properties shares - all for an investable amount of $10,000. "   

You see, 1 of the main issue that has not be raised, let alone tackled, to allow young investors and small investors to trade or even dollar-cost average every month is the high minimum commission charged by Singapore stock brokerages.  This minimum commission ranges from $25 to $35 dollars just for online trading of stocks (with no stock broker / remisier's help).  For example, if somebody is going to buy 100 DBS shares at $1,792 and pay a brokerage commission of $25, that would be 1.4% in commission! 

In order to achieve their stated aim, they have to seriously look into this high minimum commission issue....................