The Saudi Exchange Company announced the successful implementation of a new bundle of six additional enhancements to develop the Saudi capital market. The new enhancements are aimed at further strengthening the Exchange’s infrastructure, in line with Vision 2030’s Financial Sector Development Program.
Speaking on the launch, Mohammed Al Rumaih, CEO of the Saudi Exchange Company, said, “The successful roll-out of these enhancements on the Saudi Exchange Company will play a pivotal role in positioning the Exchange as a key stock exchange in the region. These enhancements were developed in accordance with international standards and will increase the efficiency of trading services on the Saudi Exchange Company.”
The new enhancements that have launched are:
• Normal Trade Removal for the Main Market: removes the current trade size threshold (which are trades above SAR 15,000 in the Main Market) that classifies trades as “normal” for Equities, REITs and CEFs and ETFs with enhanced accuracy in price formation for all trades, and capturing market activities more efficiently.
• Changing closing price calculation to Mid-point for Debt Instruments and ETFs: Enhancement to closing price formation for Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Debt Market Instruments; to avoid tracking errors and ensure consistent pricing and up-to-date reflection of market activity by taking the midpoint between the best bid and best ask prices in the order book.
• Debt market microstructural enhancements: includes several enhancements to improve price discovery, provides additional controls on volatility, and promotes investor protection. The new enhancements include allowing market orders for debt instruments as well as the introduction of static fluctuation limits.
• Request for Quotes (RFQ) Service for Negotiated Deals: allows investors to request a quote from a counterparty by digitizing the negotiated deals process
• Cancel on Disconnect orders: an optional order condition that enables investors at the order entry, to choose the order to be cancelled in the case the exchange member system is disconnected from the trading engine.
• Drop Copy: a real-time read-only data service designed to facilitate monitoring of trade and order activities that enable subscribers to receive a report of orders at firm level and/or user level.
The enhancements will foster the development of the Kingdom’s capital market, elevating it regionally and globally while positioning it as the gateway to the MENA region.
To find out more about the market infrastructure enhancements please click here.
