This is old news, but I think it is good to highlight some details here. Singapore Exchange (SGX) has reduced the minimum bid size for securities on 4 July 2011, leading to lower trading costs for investors.

To cater to the narrowing of the bid sizes, SGX will widen the Forced Order Range for all securities to +/- 20 bids from +/- 10 bids across all price ranges. Forced Order Range is a pre-execution mechanism which helps investors to avoid error trades when entering prices of orders. Any orders outside the Forced Order Range must be confirmed by the use of the Forced Key function before those orders can be submitted.

The revised Minimum Bid Size and wider Forced Order Range will apply to all securities traded on SGX except exchange traded funds, loan stocks and bonds.

Please refer to Appendix 1 for details of the changes and Appendix 2 for an illustration of cost savings for investors.

Appendix 1

Details of the changes are as follows:

Securities

SGX is also revising the Minimum Bid Size for debentures.  Details of the changes are as follows:

Debentures

Appendix 2

Cost savings to investors who buy or sell for an estimated $50,000 transaction:

* Based on approximately $50,000 notional value

For Cosco
Current bid/ask                       :           $1.95/$1.96
Revised bid/ask                      :           $1.950/$1.955 or $1.955/$1.960

Savings for buyer                   :           $127
Savings for seller                    :           $127
Total savings for investors      :           $254

Source: SGX Website.