1. This Practice Note provides guidance in connection with trading halts and suspensions.

2. A trading halt is a short term trading stoppage requested by an issuer to disclose material information. It is generally requested for a minimum of thirty minutes to a maximum of three market days. When a trading halt is being lifted, a stock will enter into the phase that the market is then in.

3. A suspension is generally a longer term trading stoppage that can be requested either by an issuer or imposed by the Exchange. When a suspension is being lifted, a stock will enter into an adjust phase for a minimum duration of 15 minutes before normal trading commences.

4. In a trading halt, orders in the system are not purged until the end of the market day while for a suspension, all orders are purged at the time of the suspension.

5. The Exchange will normally only halt or suspend the trading of an issuer's securities at the request of the issuer. The sponsor is responsible to advise the issuer and notify the Exchange if it forms the view that a trading halt or suspension is warranted. Where there is a difference in opinion between the sponsor and the issuer, the Exchange will take into account both the sponsor's and the issuer's views when acting on such requests.

6. For normal day trading, our trading hours are from 9.00 am to 12.00 pm and 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm. There is a mid-day break from 12.00 pm to 1.00 pm. Opening Routine is a 30-minute session before trading commences at 9.00 am, i.e. 8.30 am to 9.00 am. Closing Routine will run for 6 minutes after 5.00 pm, i.e. 5.00 pm to 5.06 pm. Trade at Close Phase will run for 10 minutes after the Closing Routine ends at 5.06 pm, i.e. 5.06 pm to 5.16 pm. Trade at Close Phase will run for 10 minutes after the Closing Routine ends at 5.06 pm, i.e. 5.06 pm to 5.16 pm.

7. For half day trading, our trading hours are from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Opening Routine is a 30-minute session before trading commences at 9.00 am, i.e. 8.30 am to 9.00 am. Closing Routine will run for 6 minutes after 12.00 pm, i.e. 12.00 pm to 12.06 pm. Trade at Close Phase will run for 10 minutes after the Closing Routine ends at 12.06 pm, i.e. 12.06 pm to 12.16 pm. Trade at Close Phase will run for 10 minutes after the Closing Routine ends at 12.06 pm, i.e. 12.06 pm to 12.16 pm.

8. A trading halt or suspension can be applied at any time. When an issuer wishes to request for a trading halt or suspension in its securities during trading hours and the mid-day break, it must first contact the officers in Market Control ("MC"). After alerting the MC officer, the issuer can then send the SGXNET announcement to request for a trading halt or suspension.

9. In the SGXNET announcement, issuers should state the reason for requesting the trading halt or suspension. The announcement should include the statement required under Rule 753(2).

10. Issuers are to observe the following guidelines when requesting for a trading halt or suspension:

11. For both trading halt and suspension, trading can resume only on the quarter-hour between 8.30 am to 4.45pm for lifting of trading halt and between 9.00 am to 4.45pm for resumption of trading from suspension.

12. Issuers must allow at least 30 minutes of dissemination time after a material announcement is made and before trading resumes.

13. For trading halt, issuers must allow at least 15 minutes of dissemination time for an announcement on the request for the lifting of trading halt, before trading resumes. By way of example, if an issuer makes a request for trading halt announcement at 10:00 am and releases the material information at 10:16 am, if there is no further release of material information, the issuer may also make a request for lifting of trading halt announcement at 10:16 am. However, trading may only resume at 11:00 am. If an issuer wishes to resume trading at 11:00 am, the latest time which the issuer is required to make the request for lifting of trading halt announcement is 10:45 am.

14. For suspension, issuers must allow at least 30 minutes of dissemination time for an announcement on the request for the resumption of trading from suspension, before trading resumes. By way of example, if an issuer makes a request for suspension announcement at 3:00 pm and releases the material information at 3:14 pm, if there is no further release of material information, the issuer may also make a request for the resumption of trading from suspension announcement at 3:14 pm. However, trading may only resume at 3:45 pm. If an issuer wishes to resume trading at 3:45 pm, the latest time which the issuer is required to make the request for the resumption of trading from suspension announcement is 3:15 pm.

15. Issuers are to observe the following guidelines when requesting for a lifting of trading halt or resumption of trading from suspension:

16. Issuers whose securities have been halted or suspended and wish to resume trading upon commencement of trading on a market day are advised to disclose both their material announcement and SGXNET request for resumption of trading pursuant to paragraphs 12, 13 and 14 of this Practice Note.

17. Issuers must use the correct template when sending in the above requests. Issuers can choose from the following four templates:

18. While the listed securities of an issuer is suspended from trading, shareholders must be kept updated regularly on material developments, particularly on efforts undertaken to allow the listed securities to resume trading. Accordingly, except as provided in Rule 1303(2) and Rule 1303(3), issuers whose listed securities are suspended from trading should provide half-yearly updates on their developments via SGXNET. If there has been no material updates since the previous update, it is still salutary to state so in the issuer's subsequent update. Such announcements inform shareholders that the circumstances in the last material update continue to apply and that there is no material development of which they should take note.