Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is today (Thursday) pleased to announce its plan to add contract months for its Hang Seng Index (HSI) and Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) Futures to provide more hedging flexibility for market participants. The tentative launch date of the new contract months will be on Monday, 13 June 2022, subject to regulatory approval.
In the proposed plan, HKEX will align the contract months offered for equity index futures and options. HKEX will offer spot month, next three calendar months and next three calendar quarter months for short-dated HSI and HSCEI Futures; and for long-dated HSI and HSCEI Futures, HKEX will offer the three months of June and December plus the next three months of December following the contract months specified for short-dated futures. Apart from the additional contract months, the terms in the contract specifications and other operational procedures will remain unchanged.
Trading in HKEX’s equity index futures has been very active in the first quarter of 2022, with an average daily volume of 556,723 contracts, an increase of 23 per cent when compared with the 452,315 contracts for the same period last year.
Separately, HKEX will also enhance the methodology used to calculate the Official Settlement Price (OSP) of HSI Futures Options and HSCEI Futures Options. The revised OSP methodology will tentatively be effective on Friday, 17 June 2022, subject to regulatory approval.
Please refer to the circulars published today for more details on the mentioned enhancements: Introduction of additional contract months for HSI and HSCEI Futures and Revision of OSP methodology for HSI and HSCEI Futures Options.
