Trading Hours on Christmas Eve and New Year Eve

Trading Hours on Christmas Eve
and
New Year Eve

Stock Exchange	Closing Hour (at local time)
Australia	2.10 pm (GMT + 10) on Christmas Eve *  and New Year Eve (Dec.31)*
China	No change on Christmas Eve * and New Year Eve (Dec.31) *
Hong Kong	12:30 pm (GMT + 8) on Christmas Eve *  and New Year Eve (Dec.31)*
India	No change on Christmas Eve * and New Year Eve (Dec.31) *
Indonesia	Closed on Christmas Eve and New Year Eve (Dec. 31)
Japan	No change on Christmas Eve * but will be closed on New Year Eve (Dec. 31)
Malaysia	No change on Christmas Eve * and New Year Eve (Dec.31) *
New Zealand	4 pm (GMT + 12) on Christmas Eve *  but will be closed at 12:40pm on New Year Eve (Dec. 31)
Philippines	Closed on Christmas Eve and New Year Eve (Dec. 31)
Singapore	12:30 pm (GMT + 8) on Christmas Eve *  and New Year Eve (Dec.31)*
South Korea	No change on Christmas Eve * but will be closed on New Year Eve (Dec. 31)
Taiwan	No change on Christmas Eve * and New Year Eve (Dec.31) *
Thailand	No change on Christmas Eve * but will be closed on New Year Eve (Dec. 31)
Vietnam	No change on Christmas Eve * and New Year Eve (Dec.31) *

* Note:
If Christmas Eve and New Year Eve fall on weekend, all Asia-Pacific stock exchanges obviously will be closed. Otherwise, trading hours at China, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam will be traded as usual.

If public holiday falls on Sunday, the following day shall be a public holiday, and if this day is already a holiday, then the next day shall be a public holiday.

Indian Exchanges Defer Extended Trade After Backlash

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Indian stock exchanges deferred plans for longer trading hours after a backlash from brokers and investors given only a day’s notice, hampering efforts to win back business lost to overseas bourses.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, founded in 1875, and the National Stock Exchange will open at the existing time of 9:55 a.m. tomorrow, instead of the 9 a.m. start they had announced last night, Bombay spokesman Kalyan Bose said. The new timings will be implemented on Jan. 4 after “market feedback,” delayed the change, Bose said in an e-mail, without elaborating.

“The decision should have been taken keeping in mind the impact on people across the country, and not taken in haste by a handful of people,” said Vijay Shah, chairman of Balance Equity Broking Pvt. in Mumbai. “Longer trading hours will give more time to day-traders and won’t mean much for genuine investors.”

The Bombay Exchange, backed by Deutsche Boerse AG and Singapore Exchange Ltd., and larger rival National exchange, partly owned by NYSE Euronext and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. want an earlier start to lure derivatives traders in Hong Kong and Singapore onto their platforms. Even a three-week grace period isn’t sufficient for brokers and investors to prepare, said K.R. Choksey Shares & Securities.

“Starting at 9 a.m. without the infrastructure in place puts the market at grave risk,” Deven Choksey, chief executive officer of K.R. Choksey said. “We need to have a common clearing house for the exchanges, not two different ones as is the case now, and a common group of banks, to speed up processing before advancing the time.”

Source: Bloomberg

IMF Gets $600 Billion Credit Line to Help in Financial Crises

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said it will have access to a credit line of up to $600 billion to make loans during financial crises after contributing countries agreed to fold commitments into one pool.

The agreement, yet to be approved by the IMF board, adds as many as 13 members from the current 26 to the so-called New Arrangements to Borrow, including emerging nations China, Russia, Brazil and India, the IMF said in an e-mailed statement.

The decision “marks an important moment for multilateralism and the fund, which will help the IMF’s effectiveness in its response to crises,” Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in yesterday’s statement.

The deal goes beyond a pledge by leaders of the Group of 20 nations to contribute up to $500 billion to a credit arrangement that’s currently worth $54 billion, the IMF said. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression prompted more nations to seek aid from the fund, created after World War II to help ensure the stability of the global monetary system.

The agreement, which merges existing commitments into one facility, makes it easier for the IMF to tap into its supplemental resources. The credit line will be “an effective tool of crisis management as a backstop for the international monetary system,” the IMF statement said.

While a general agreement on the NAB was reached at the G- 20 meeting in Pittsburgh in September, talks on the specifics stalled over divisions between some emerging and developed nations over voting rights relating to the credit facility.

Borrowed From Members

The IMF has estimated that its current credit line was insufficient when the financial crisis boosted demand for loans. It then started to borrow from individual members, such as Japan, to continue lending to countries in difficulty.

To ensure the institution would continue shoring up economies around the world, G-20 leaders in April pledged to add $500 billion to the IMF’s resources.

Some of these contributions were bilateral loans, while China agreed to participate by buying the first IMF notes. Some countries, like the U.S., made theirs directly to the NAB.

When the new credit-line agreement is activated, all the bilateral loans will fall into it, Andrew Tweedie, who heads the IMF Finance Department, said in a Nov. 20 interview. It won’t come into effect before next year, he said.

Related articles
IMF Assesses Ways to Raise Money From Banks (abcnews.go.com)
G20 must not withdraw economic stimulus too soon, Alistair Darling warns (guardian.co.uk)

Asia Stock Market Holidays / Trading Calendar in Year 2011

Asia Stock Market Holidays / Trading Calendar

in

Year 2011

Click on 'Country' as shown below for Market Holiday's schedule.

Australia


China


Hong Kong


India


Indonesia


Japan


Malaysia


New Zealand


Philippines


Singapore


South Korea


Taiwan


Thailand


Vietnam