Market Harmonisation Details Confirmed - European Alliance Exchanges to adopt new market hours

The London Stock Exchange today (June 17) confirmed its European alliance short-term market harmonisation proposals - including the extension of domestic market hours. Deutsche Börse is close to completing its formal consultation with its exchange committee and will make an announcement soon. The six new Alliance exchanges (Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Switzerland) have also expressed their support for the proposed trading hours and will be working towards implementing them in the coming months. The changes which follow extensive consultations with the market, will see the London Stock Exchange introduce: Core domestic market hours of 08:00 to 16:30 London time (09:00 to 17:30 CET); an unlimited maximum order size on the order book; a new validity period for limit orders on the order book - up to 90 days. On each of the proposals more than three-quarters of respondents supported the changes. The new arrangements, including an earlier starting time for Regulatory News Announcements (07:00 instead of 087:30), will take effect from Monday, September 20, 1999. The new market hours will see the order book open for limit orders to be entered and deleted, but not executed, from 07:50 (currently 08:50) with the uncrossing and market opening taking place at 08:00 (currently 09:00). The mandatory quote period for trading in all other domestic stocks on SEAQ and SEATS PLUS will also begin at 08:00 (currently 09:00). The pre-mandatory quote period, during which prices are regarded as indicative only, will commence at 07:30 (currently 08:00). The consultation also looked at longer-term changes including the extension of the order book to some or all of the FTSE 250 stocks, the use of auctions and/or liquidity providers and a reduction in the time it takes to settle share transactions. In each of these areas more than two-thirds of the respondents supported these long-term objectives for the market. More detailed proposals will now be developed by the Exchange.