Hong Kong Stock Exchange introduces trading fee to replace portion of transaction levy: Effective from September 1,2001, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, will no longer receive its portion of the transaction charge levied by its parent company. The Exchange’s portion of the levy is currently 0.005% per side of the value of a transaction.

In order to replace this source of income, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong was to introduce on 1 September 2001 a trading fee of 0.005% per side to replace its part of the transaction levy, paid both by the seller and the buyer.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has approved the fee and the related amendments to the various rules. 

Effective on the same date, the transaction levy payable to the SFC will increase from 0.005% to 0.007% per side of the value  of the transaction, payable by each of the buyer and the seller.

The income which reflects the increase in the levy will be used to fund a new Investor Compensation Fund.
 

Hong Kong Exchanges stock options trading moves to new system:Equity options trading of Hong Kong Exchanges was transferred to a new trading system called HKATS (the Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System) in the framework of its Derivatives Trading Integration program.

Up to recently, stock options had been traded on TOPS, the Traded Options System. Meanwhile, clearing and settlement of stock options trades will continue to be performed on TOPS. 

The migration involved 46 Options Exchange Participants of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges. These Options Exchange Participants continue to be the only Exchange Participants permitted to conduct stock options business. 

The transfer of the options trading is the first step in the integration of the derivatives market infrastructure. The second step will be the integration of futures and options clearing on the new Derivatives Clearing and Settlement System, or DCASS. This second step of the Derivatives Clearing Integration program is scheduled to be completed  by the second quarter of 2002. 

Philippine Stock Exchange completes demutualization: The Philippine Stock Exchange completed its conversion into a stock corporation from a mutual company, a move aimed at promoting transparency  and reviving investor confidence in the market.

This move follows a new securities law set up last year whose provisions included the demutualization of the exchange to encourage transparency.

The new law requires the Philippine Stock Exchange to offer its stocks to public investors to reduce the ownership of brokers to a minority. Those shares will then be listed on the bourse. No timetable has been set for the offering.

Thailand Stock Exchange  improves listed companies minor shareholdings distribution by increasing listed companies minor shareholders to 20% : The Board of Governors of the Stock Exchange of Thailand approved a resolution that modifies the exchange's regulations regarding minor shareholders distribution among listed companies.

The new rule shall ensure that the proportion of shares distributed to minor shareholders adequately reflects the number of shares able to be circulated in the stock market.
 

Thailand Stock Exchange determines three new measures to protect unusual stock trading : The Thailand Stock Exchange’s Board approved three measures to protect the market against unusual trading activities in order to catch such behavior more efficiently and to ensure that the culprit groups are targeted.

If the Stock Exchange of Thailand decides from its initial investigations that suspicions of unusual stocks trading of customers are grounded, and if it looks as if this might continue in the future, the Stock Exchange of Thailand shall forbid member companies from sending in trade orders from  these customers for at least 30 working days.

If the exchange finds that there are unusual stock trading together with the stock trading situation show signs of systematic risk due to severe fluctuations in the trading price and should there be severe crowding of the stock trading volume, the Stock Exchange of Thailand will direct member companies  to  prohibit such customers from trading on a net settlement basis, and/or from trading on a margin basis, and/or from short trading, and shall order these customers to temporarily trade in cash only. This measure is designed to protect against damage to the system as a whole. 

Non-Voting Depository Receipt on Thailand Stock Exchange attracts big success:  A few weeks after the introduction of trading in Non-Voting Depository Receipt (NVDR) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, investors’ interest in the instrument was very high with trading sprea over many industry sectors.

The sectors receiving most interest were communication, banking and energy . As of end of June 2001, investors held NVDRs with underlying shares in 195 companies out of the total 333 listed companies, representing 59% of all the listed companies on the exchange.

Although foreign investors trading NVDRs do not have the right to vote at shareholders’ meetings, these figures show that the NVDRs have received great interest from foreign investors.

It is believed that this new instrument will receive increased interest from foreign investors, which will help stimulate trading on the Stock Exchange of Thailand as trading volumes coming from foreign investors demand will create demand on the exchange.

Emerging  Market Listings at the end of 2000:  The    emerging  market  which   has   the  most  important number of listings  was  India, with  Mumbai  totaling  5,853  companies,  and   the  National   Stock  Exchange (NSE) totalling  1,106  companies at the end of December 2000.

Although Egypt was the second emerging market with the highest number of listed  companies with      1,076  listings,   only   around   60  of   them  are  regularly  traded.  In  fact,   because  there   are  tax  advantages in gaining  a listing, a large number of companies are not listed for trading purposes.

Chinese markets were the third  place in emerging markets by listing number  but the second by trading  importance with Shanghai counting 559 A shares and 55 B shares , and Shenzhen 499 A shares and 58 B shares.

FTSE launches first index of listed exchange stocks: FTSE, the global index group, was to  launch early September 2001 in association  with Mondo Vision , publisher of the handbook of  World  Stock, Derivative and Commodity  Exchanges,  the world’s first index  which  tracks  listed  exchanges, and other trading  venues .The index was to be named the FTSE/MV Exchanges Index.

The  new  index will measure  the progress of the new and rapidly developing exchanges sector. It    will include  the  leading  listed  exchanges  worldwide, among  which  the Australian Stock Exchange , the Deutsche  Bourse,  Euronext,  the  Hong  Kong  Exchanges,  the  Italian  Exchanges,  the London  Stock Exchanges, the OM  group and Singapore  Exchanges.

As  more  and  more  exchanges  are  choosing  the  way  of  privatization to  expand their business and respond to competitive challenges ,the sector of newly listed exchanges is expected to develop rapidly.

As  for other  companies  in  the different  economic  sub-sectors, their investors need to  have a specific index  to  track  and  measure the  performance of  individual  exchange stocks and the sector as a whole.

This  new  index  could  become the benchmark by which exchange performances will be judged. It will help  the  management  of  newly listed exchanges to compare their respective performance with other exchanges.

The new index will also draw  the  attention  of the market on this new sector, and give the shares of this exchange  a better chance of  success.