Singapore - The Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) Tuesday said its derivatives and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) markets set new trading records last year with volume surging to 62 million contracts, up by 38 per cent from 2007.

By September 2008, turnover in the total futures and options market had already surpassed that for the whole of 2007. This was followed by a record month in October, when 6,863,420 contracts were traded, said SGX.

Total trading value of SGX-listed ETFs in 2008 was 2.94 billion Singapore dollars (1.995 billion US dollars), a 155 per cent increase over 1.15 billion Singapore dollars registered in 2007.

"The increase in value of ETFs traded is especially significant given that market values have generally fallen in 2008," said SGX Senior Vice President Andrew Ler, attributing the increase to growing customer awareness of the benefits of ETFs.

"Investors appreciate the market access, diversification, transparency and flexibility that ETFs offer, especially in a volatile market," he said. (dpa)