The international derivatives exchange Eurex announced today that it will extend trading hours for several equity index futures. With effect from 1 December 2008, the futures on the three Swiss indices SLI Swiss Leader Index®, SMI® and SMIM® (Swiss Market Index Midcap) and the Russian MSCI Russia and RDXxt® indices will be tradable from 8 am (instead of the previous 9 am). After this adjustment, trading will commence at the same time for all Eurex equity index futures.
Eurex will also be extending trading hours for the SLI Swiss Leader Index future to 10 pm (previously 5:30 pm). With this move, Eurex aims to provide better access to the Swiss market particularly for clients in the US. The SLI Swiss Leader Index was admitted for trading in the US by the CFTC in August 2008. Furthermore, the minimal price change will be lowered from 0.5 index points to 0.1 index points to facilitate more efficient pricing.
