Shares of Tiong Seng Holdings Limited (SGX:BFI) closed at 0.25 yesterday. Tiong Seng Holdings Limited currently has a total float of 444.78M shares and on average sees 38,409 shares exchange hands each day. The stock now has a 52-week low of 0.215 and high of 0.41.

Singapore Exchange (SGX): Asia’s Rising Exchange Giant

Singapore Exchange, or SGX, is the main securities trading platform in Singapore.

The assets traded on the platform comprise stocks, bonds, debentures, derivatives and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Tiong Seng Holdings Limited is represented there as well. Stocks are the most popular assets traded on SGX.

As of January 2009, there were 768 companies whose stocks were listed on SGX. Several foreign companies are listed on SGX. In 2009, there were 455 domestic companies and 313 foreign companies listed or cross-listed on the exchange. SGX is one of the major exchanges for stocks and derivatives in South-East Asia and aims to be Asia’s leading securities exchange. This leasing position allow companies like Tiong Seng Holdings Limited to receive new trading deals.

SGX was created on December 1, 1999. It resulted from a merger of Singapore International Monetary Exchange and Stock Exchange of Singapore. The predecessors were Singapore’s most established and highly reputed exchange platforms.

The management of SGX

SGX is owned and operated by Singapore Exchange Limited, a public company whose shares are also listed on the platform. SGX went public about a year after SGX was formed. The exchange stock is a component of benchmark indices Straits Times Index and MSCI Singapore Free Index.

Regular trading on SGX starts at 9:00 a.m., but the exchange runs a pre-market session for 20 minutes between 8:30 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. The exchange ends regular trading at 5:00 p.m. After the close of the regular sessions, the exchange allows additional six minutes of extended trading until 5:05 p.m. after which the platform closes for the day at 5:06 p.m.

Straits Times Index (STI) tracks the performance of 30 SGX listed companies with largest market capitalization. STI, which has existed since 1966, reviews its components quarterly.

GSX continues to attract international companies seeking to list in the country. It opens new opportunities to Tiong Seng Holdings Limited.The bi-annual newsletter, CG Watch, ranked Singapore top among 12 Asian markets on the basis of corporate governance standards in its 2016 publication. Singapore scored 67 points, beating Hong Kong, which ranked second with scored 65 points. Singapore not only improved its ranking but also its score from 64 points in 2014 when the markets were last ranked by CG Watch.

The improving corporate governance standards in the country partly explain the growing interest by offshore companies to list their stocks on SGX. In June 2016, SGX collaborated with Sustainalytics to provide ratings for companies listed on the stock exchange.

Good corporate governance helps in boosting investor confidence in a company and economy. As such, good corporate governance has been linked to high foreign direct investment (FDI). Experts have repeatedly said Asian economies could grow faster if efforts were made to improve governance standards that would in turn attract more FDI inflow.

FDI inflow into Singapore was $68 billion in 2014, compared with Hong Kong’s $103 billion. In that year Hong Kong ranked topped in the CG Watch report. But both markets registered an increase in FDI.

Standout performers

Stocks that have registered outstanding performance on SGX in the last five years include Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (SGX: Y92), which produced a total return of 216%; Comfortdelgro Corporation Limited (SGX: C52) and SATS Ltd (SGX: S58) also performed well in the period, producing returns of 123% and 119%, respectively. But transport company SMRT Corporation Ltd (SGX: S53) as among the poor performance in the last five years, producing negative returns.

SGX has more than 90 companies with market cap above S$1 billion. And Tiong Seng Holdings Limited is represented there.

Investing in Singapore stocks is hot lately. More retail investors are looking into stocks traded on the exchange. Its a way to bet on the Singaporean growth prospects.

Tiong Seng Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a building construction and civil engineering contractor. The company has market cap of $111.20 million. It operates in four divisions: Construction, Property Development, Rental, and Sales of Goods. It has a 12.5 P/E ratio. The firm undertakes various construction projects for private and public sectors in various categories, including residential, commercial/hotel, institutional, civil engineering, and foundation and infrastructural projects.