Allan Thomson, the JSE's Director of Trading, said R202 million had been traded on Yield-X by 15h00 on the opening day. "We are happy with today's trading performance, which is in line with our expectations," he said.
Thomson said applications from 30 trading and clearing members had been received to date, although not all members were ready to commence trading today. The five major banks - Standard Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, ABSA, Nedcor and Investec Bank - had come on board as clearing members. "We expect trading volumes to pick up over the next two weeks as an increasing number of members start trading," he said.
With trade now open, Yield-X hopes to attract not only traditional institutions, banks, corporate treasuries and intermediaries, but also smaller financial institutions and retail investors who were previously unable to participate in the interest rate market. Said Thomson: "The market has been immensely supportive of the new interest rate platform. We expect Yield-X to emulate the success of the JSE's equities and agricultural futures trading systems."
Yield-X was launched by the JSE in order to stimulate trade in interest rate deriviatives and underlying spot bonds, encouraging liquidity in the South African market. Yield-X will accept primary bond listings in the latter half of 2005.
