Vietnam Stock Exchange to extend trading hours to 2:30pm in February 2012

The HCM City Stock Exchange (STC) or HoChiMinh Stock Exchange (HOSE) has recently unveiled the plan of trading hour extension to afternoon which is expected to take effect from February 2012.

The announcement forwarded to member securities companies, Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) and appointed paying banks indicates later opening hours of morning sessions at 9:00 AM rather than 8:30 AM as presently.

The total trading time of two hours and a half in the morning for opening order-matching, continuous order-matching 1 and put-through transactions still remains unchanged.

The morning sessions will open at 9:00AM (GMT+7) to 11:30AM (GMT+7) and close for lunch break from 11:30AM (GMT +7) to 1:00PM (GMT+7).

The afternoon sessions will open at 1:00PM (GMT+7) and close at 2:30 PM (GMT+7) including continuous order-matching 2 (1:00PM to 2:00PM), closing order-matching (2:00PM to 2:15PM) and negotiated transactions (1:00PM to 2:30PM).

The HCM City Stock Exchange (STC) has recently unveiled the plan of trading hour extension to afternoon which is expected to take effect since February 2012.

The announcement forwarded to member securities companies, Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) and appointed paying banks indicates later opening hours of morning sessions at 9:00 AM rather than 8:30 AM as presently.

The total trading time of two hours and a half in the morning for opening order-matching, continuous order-matching 1 and put-through transactions still remains unchanged.

The afternoon sessions will open at 1:00PM and close at 2:30 PM including continuous order-matching 2 (1:00PM to 2:00PM), closing order-matching (2:00PM to 2:15PM) and negotiated transactions (1:00PM to 2:30PM).

The trading hours have been adjusted with a view to be in line with the regional standard practices as are in China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, New Zealand, etc. With this in view, it is expected to make continuous order-matching in afternoon sessions longer in attempt to strengthen market liquidity.

Also, the plan suggests no newly-placed orders, amendment and cancellation of matched orders as well as put-through advertising and settlement during the midday trading break.

Additional regulations will also be imposed namely all-day trading price band, determination of reference price, order cancellation and amendment.

By the way from Feb. 6, 2012, the VN30 Index, which make up 80% of HOSE's market cap and 60% of HOSE's turnover will be officially launched by Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), along with the VN Index. This Index is a free-float adjusted, market cap-weighted index of 30 stocks that have the highest market cap and liquidity on HOSE.

VN-30 index will be included real estate developer like Becamex Infrastructure Development, Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Kinh Bac City Development, Ocean Group, PetroVietnam Finance and Tan Tao Investment Industry.

Source: Intellasia

Singapore Exchange (SGX) commence all-day stock trading from Aug 1, 2011

The Singapore Exchange (SGX), Asia’s second-largest listed bourse operator, cancelled its midday lunch break from Monday (Aug 1, 2011) and started all-day trading w.e.f. today.

With this change, SGX's securities market will trade non- stop between 9am and 5pm (GMT+8), without taking a lunch break from 12.30pm to 2pm (GMT+8) and this will allow investors to respond faster to regional market movements and news.

SGX had originally planned to scrap the lunch break from March but delayed the move because of opposition from some traders.

Continuous all-day trading will enhance Singapore's competitiveness as an international financial centre.

The implementation will allow investors, especially those who trade pan-Asian securities, to respond to regional market movements and news flow.

Meanwhile, the SGX derivatives market has already trading continuously.

The continuous all-day securities trading will provide more avenues for participants to invest, hedge and arbitrage their investments.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) member firms will offer retail investors various ways to execute orders.
These include online trading services, the use of central dealing desks, and the use of mobile technology by trading representatives to execute orders when they are off-premises.

Between 12:30pm and 2pm, formally the lunch break hours have made a turnover about S$110 million, accounting for 6.4 per cent of the day's trading.

At the end of first day of non-stop trading, Singapore (SGX) chalked up a turnover of 1.6 billion, nearly 1.5 times the daily average of 979 million shares traded in June.

While the extended hours are a boon for investors, analysts say it will take some time before the change is felt.