London Stock Exchange Group today announced the migration of Italian equities for the MTA and Expandi markets onto TradElect, the Group’s trading system. A single, world-class trading system now joins the two markets, creating Europe’s deepest pool of liquidity, generating new trading opportunities and greater efficiencies for the market as a whole.
Massimo Capuano, Deputy Chief Executive of London Stock Exchange Group, said:
“The transfer of Italian equities onto TradElect is a major step in the integration of Borsa Italiana and the London Stock Exchange. Our Italian member firms in particular will benefit from improved system performance and the opportunity to employ new technical trading strategies which have been driving record volume growth in London.
“In creating Europe’s largest pool of liquidity, we anticipate that the Group’s network of 500 equity trading members will drive tighter spreads and a lower cost of capital, to the benefit of investors and companies.”
320 MTA stocks, and 40 stocks from Borsa Italiana’s Expandi market commenced trading on TradElect on Monday. In preparation for the launch, Italian customers have had access to test environments for the last five months. Following four weekend market-wide dress rehearsals, Italian market participants self-certified their readiness for yesterday’s launch. The other Italian markets currently hosted by the Affari platform will migrate onto TradElect in the first half of 2009.
TradElect came into live service for the London market in June 2007, having premiered in Johannesburg two months earlier. The launch of TradElect has facilitated a reduction in end-to-end latency from 140 to under five milliseconds and a 10-fold increase in capacity. Further updates to reduce latency and double capacity are planned for the next few weeks. Since the introduction of TradElect, there have been 25 days when the number of trades has exceeded 1 million. So far this calendar year the number of trades on the platform has increased by 50 per cent and the value traded by five per cent.
TradElect’s flexible technology allows new products and services to be introduced to the market more quickly. The coming months will bring:
- Improved connectivity through the launch of a FIX interface to TradElect and a FAST streaming data broadcast channel from Infolect
- Innovative functionality with the launch of the world’s first combined cash equities and Contracts for Difference Market
- New order types on the SETS order book generating new trading opportunities for firms
- Improved market efficiency and risk management for market participants on the London Stock Exchange’s International Order Book with the introduction of a central counterparty.
