Market overview

Singapore Exchange operates the country’s securities market on two boards with separate admission machinery. The Mainboard is admitted and supervised by the Exchange itself under the Mainboard Rules. Catalist is sponsor supervised: a listing applicant must appoint a full sponsor to be eligible for listing, and sponsors carry both introducing activities, preparing an applicant for admission or advising on a reverse takeover, and continuing activities, advising a listed issuer on compliance after admission.

Read the full overview and sources

The Mainboard entry tests are quantitative and set out in Rule 210. An issuer must be a going concern or the successor of one and meet one of three routes: consolidated pre-tax profit of at least S$10 million for the latest financial year with an operating track record of at least three years; profitability in the latest financial year with a three year record and a market capitalisation of not less than S$150 million based on the issue price and post invitation issued share capital; or operating revenue in the latest completed financial year with a market capitalisation of not less than S$300 million. Distribution rules sit alongside the financial ones. At least 25% of issued shares excluding treasury shares must be held by at least 300 public shareholders. A secondary listing requires at least 500 shareholders worldwide, and where the Exchange and the primary home exchange lack a framework for moving shares between jurisdictions, at least 500 shareholders in Singapore or 1,000 worldwide.

The benchmark is the Straits Times Index, which comprises the largest 30 companies by full market capitalisation that meet the eligibility rules. FTSE International Limited is the benchmark administrator. Constituents are adjusted for free float and companies with a free float of 15% or below are excluded outright. The index is reviewed semi annually in March and September, with a further quarterly review, and liquidity is tested on the same March and September cycle. Below it sits the FTSE ST series, with All-Share, Mid Cap, Small Cap and Fledgling indices covering SGX Mainboard companies, a China index screening for Chinese revenue and assets, a Shariah compliant index, and industry indices built on 11 Industries, 20 Supersectors and 45 Sectors.

Government paper is issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, not by the exchange. MAS publishes a single auction and issuance calendar covering Singapore Government Securities bills and bonds; that calendar carried 664 records at retrieval, running from 2009 through to scheduled 2026 auctions. Both instrument families are on it: 6-Month Treasury bills auctioned on a rolling fortnightly pattern, and dated bonds such as the 5-Year auctioned on 28 Oct 2026 for issue on 02 Nov 2026. GSN covers SGX listed company announcements, Mainboard and Catalist rule changes, STI index reviews and the SGS auction programme.

Sources

This overview is based on the official documents listed below, last checked 2026-09-03. Figures are as stated in those documents.

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