Anyone In The Singapore And/Or Hk Stock Markets?

[ExpatJ]

I just opened an HSBC account in singapore which allows you to trade stocks on the Sing and HK exchanges- anyone any experience in these? Any good advice on blue chip dividend stocks?

I was going to buy a mutual fund but HSBC has horrible fees- 5 % upfront sale fees for a start!!!!! So do it yourself seems to be the way to go..

[ShopBoy]

Local Philips Poem account could trade in HK and SG stocks too

[wordchild]

Local Philips Poem account could trade in HK and SG stocks too

i would 2nd this,better to use an equities specialist, rather than a bank which is going to push its own in-house product at you all the time. Phillip securities is a good choice , v good research and they also have a Bangkok (and London) office.

Edited August 12, 2011 by wordchild

[ExpatJ]

I heard there is zero tax on stock transaction in Singapore! Sounds too good to be true though..

[fletchsmile]

I heard there is zero tax on stock transaction in Singapore! Sounds too good to be true though..

In addition to whatever your brokerage fee is, there is a clearing fee on SGX of 0.04%, so it's low compared to UK with 0.5% stamp duty, but not zero. Also there's GST (VAT) on fees.

Let us know how you get on with HSBC as I was considering opening an account with them.

Mutual funds in Singapore are generally poor value compared to many other countries. 5% up front is not uncommon. You can often buy similar funds elsewhere with 0-1% up front, including in Thailand, for some names such as Aberdeen.

[Bizz]

Buy now sell six weeks, no later.

[ExpatJ]

I heard there is zero tax on stock transaction in Singapore! Sounds too good to be true though..

In addition to whatever your brokerage fee is, there is a clearing fee on SGX of 0.04%, so it's low compared to UK with 0.5% stamp duty, but not zero. Also there's GST (VAT) on fees.

Let us know how you get on with HSBC as I was considering opening an account with them.

Mutual funds in Singapore are generally poor value compared to many other countries. 5% up front is not uncommon. You can often buy similar funds elsewhere with 0-1% up front, including in Thailand, for some names such as Aberdeen.

I have an HSBC premier account in Thailand and Indonesia so i was able to easily open a singapore account (even though i have no connection with the country). I was assigned a European relationship manager and he is far,far stronger in terms of investment advice than the local managers i have in Thailand and Indonesia- so that is one bonus. HSBC singapore allows you to trade stocks in Singapore and Hong Kong, they charge 0.3% commission. Orders currently have to be placed by phone though at the end of this year they will introduce a do-it-yourself online buy/sell process that will make it easier for us to trade and with likely lower commission.

You are right about the mutual funds- they all seem to have 5% up front fees plus other fees- so I stayed well away.

One other issue for me- i feel safer putting my cash for stock investment in a large bank such as HSBC compared with keeping it in one of the stock trading companies such as Kim Eng , Interactive brokers etc. which i think have more chance of going under and/or difficult to get redress if there were any major problems with employee stealing cash or some such issue.

[fletchsmile]

I heard there is zero tax on stock transaction in Singapore! Sounds too good to be true though..

In addition to whatever your brokerage fee is, there is a clearing fee on SGX of 0.04%, so it's low compared to UK with 0.5% stamp duty, but not zero. Also there's GST (VAT) on fees.

Let us know how you get on with HSBC as I was considering opening an account with them.

Mutual funds in Singapore are generally poor value compared to many other countries. 5% up front is not uncommon. You can often buy similar funds elsewhere with 0-1% up front, including in Thailand, for some names such as Aberdeen.

I have an HSBC premier account in Thailand and Indonesia so i was able to easily open a singapore account (even though i have no connection with the country). I was assigned a European relationship manager and he is far,far stronger in terms of investment advice than the local managers i have in Thailand and Indonesia- so that is one bonus. HSBC singapore allows you to trade stocks in Singapore and Hong Kong, they charge 0.3% commission. Orders currently have to be placed by phone though at the end of this year they will introduce a do-it-yourself online buy/sell process that will make it easier for us to trade and with likely lower commission.

You are right about the mutual funds- they all seem to have 5% up front fees plus other fees- so I stayed well away.

One other issue for me- i feel safer putting my cash for stock investment in a large bank such as HSBC compared with keeping it in one of the stock trading companies such as Kim Eng , Interactive brokers etc. which i think have more chance of going under and/or difficult to get redress if there were any major problems with employee stealing cash or some such issue.

Expat J

I've been using Stan Chart's relatively new platform for the last few months. The platform itself is crude and quite poor, eg no live quotes + can't even see a price for your trade when you hit confirm if trading at market price + You can set limits, but they only last 1 day + It can also log you out due to inactivity without warning + If you accidentally close the browser you need to wait 15 mins again sometimes as it still recognises you as logged in.

On the plus side:

1) It's online

2) It links nicely into their internet banking, so very easy to transfer money between settlement and normal accounts.

3) Transaction fees are around 0.2%, with no minimum. (Note I have priority banking status - similar to you at HSBC, I think it's around 0.25% for non-priority.)

4) Can trade about a dozen diff markets, eg Aus, Sing, UK, US

In summary, it is online, but crude. It's useable tho' if you can accept it's flaws.

I use it basically for execution only. I supplement it by using brokers quotes and real time info from elsewhere. I believe there are various upgrades planned. However, it's far better for me than wasting time on the phone or by post.

Edited November 14, 2011 by fletchsmile