HKEx’s AHFT To Include Block Trading, Mini HSI Futures And Mini HHI Futures From 6 January 2014

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) will introduce Mini Hang Seng Index (Mini HSI) and Mini H-shares Index (Mini HHI) Futures as well as its Block Trading Facility (BTF) to its After-Hours Futures Trading (AHFT) session starting on Monday, 6 January 2014.

HKEx’s AHFT session is from 5 pm to 11 pm and currently includes Hang Seng Index (HSI) Futures and H-shares Index (HHI) Futures.

The BTF does not apply to mini index futures contracts trades now and will not apply to them in AHFT.

Block trades will not be exempt from AHFT’s +/-5 per cent price limit, and block trades or block trade-related adjustments will be rejected if there is insufficient collateral in the Participant’s account during after-hours trading because banking facilities will not be available for special block trade margin call during AHFT. The attached table shows how the BTF will operate from 6 January 2014.

For a related news release from November 2013, please see:
http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/newsconsul/hkexnews/2013/1311182news.htm.

For additional information on AHFT, Mini HSI Futures and Mini HHI Futures, please see the following links:

AHFT
http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/market/dv_tradfinfo/ahft.htm

Mini HSI Futures
http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/prod/drprod/mhsifo/mini_HSI.htm

Mini HHI Futures
http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/prod/drprod/mchfut/MCH_Fut.htm

Comparison of BTF in Day Session and AHFT Session for HSI Futures and H-shares Index Futures

Item	BTF in Day Session	BTF in AHFT Session
Block Trade Hours	Within Day Session trading hours	Within AHFT Session trading hours
Eligible Users	Block trades may be executed between client accounts, house accounts and/or market maker accounts of Participants	Same
Minimum Volume Threshold	100 contracts	Same
Permissible Price Range	When the executed price is within the range of highest traded price and lowest traded price, or bid and ask price of Day Session; or when the executed price is within 1% to both sides of a reference price obtained through prevailing market price	When the executed price is within the range of highest traded price and lowest traded price, or bid and ask price of AHFT Session; or when the executed price is within 1% to both sides of a reference price obtained through prevailing market price
Price Limit	No price limit	The executed price of block trade should not exceed the 5% price limit in the AHFT Session
Special Block Trade Margin (SBTM)*	If margin fund maintained with the Clearing House is insufficient to cover SBTM, Participants will be informed to deposit SBTM within 1 hour. Block trades will be rejected if Participants cannot deposit SBTM within 1 hour.	If the margin fund maintained with the Clearing House is insufficient to cover SBTM, block trades will be rejected automatically without SBTM call in AHFT Session as there are no banking facilities during AHFT Session for the Clearing House to collect SBTM.

*	If the execution price of a block trade deviates from the prevailing market price such that an intra-day variation adjustment would have been triggered (i.e. currently 25% of the margin rate), the Clearing House will collect SBTM for such block trade from the concerned Clearing Participant.