A trading halt is a short trading stoppage which is requested solely by the issuer. It is usually carried out on an intra-day basis with a minimum duration of one hour and a maximum duration of three market days. A trading halt can be used for purposes such as the dissemination of material information by issuers during market hours.
When a trading halt applies, all orders in the Central Limit Order Book will remain in the system until purged at the end of the trading day. Market participants will also be able to perform order management, where they can input orders, amend order quantities downwards and withdraw orders. A trading halt can only be lifted at the quarters of an hour. When lifted, all executable orders will be matched at a single price before trading commences.
Other enhancements include the modification of SGX's existing suspension mechanism to include an Adjust Phase. When a suspension is lifted, the stock will enter an Adjust Phase for at least 15 minutes before resumption of trading. The market can perform order management during this time and executable orders will be matched at a single price before the stock commences trading.
SGX will also modify the existing lunch hour Adjust Phase to allow for order management between 12.30pm and 1.59pm. Executable orders will be matched at a single price during the non-cancel period between 1.59pm and 2.00pm; afterwhich the market will enter into normal trading.
Head of Risk Management and Regulation, Alan Shaw said, "The enhancements to our securities market will improve transparency and price discovery, which will help investors make better-informed decisions and help companies meet their disclosure obligations."
