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CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that beginning Monday, April 12, 2010, electronic trading hours for the dollar-denominated Nikkei 225 futures will be expanded to give market participants worldwide nearly 24-hour access to the benchmark contracts listed at CME and traded on the CME Globex platform. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of CME.
“Building on our longstanding relationship with Nikkei Inc., we are pleased to be able to offer customers nearly 24-hour access to dollar-denominated Nikkei 225 futures,” said Scot Warren, Managing Director of Equity Index Products and Services. “With the new extended hours, our customers will have round-the-clock access to the benchmark index of leading Japanese stocks.”
With the expansion, market participants will be able to trade the futures contracts while the Japanese equity market is open. Currently, the futures contracts traded at CME are available only while the Japanese equity market is closed.
Under the expanded hours, the contracts will begin trading on CME Globex on Sunday at 17:00-15:15 the next day Chicago Time, with trading Monday–Friday from 15:30 p.m. -15:15 the next day (closing at 15:15 Friday, with a daily maintenance shutdown between 16:30-17:00).
The expanded trading hours were added as part of the licensing agreement extension between CME and Nikkei Inc. Open outcry trading hours, as well as trading hours for dollar-denominated Nikkei 225 options on futures and yen-denominated futures, will remain unchanged.
