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The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced its intention to expand its trading offering to include equities listed in Norway, beginning with the 25 largest companies listed in Norway. The offering, made possible by MiFID and other regulatory changes, is designed to provide lower trading costs and other benefits for customers seeking to trade all Nordic equities on one platform. NASDAQ OMX will apply the same trading rules and high quality market surveillance to the trading of these new shares as for its other listed shares.
“We undertake this initiative in light of customer demand, which is dramatically changing the competitive landscape for exchanges. We want to extend our trading offering to include shares from all Nordic countries on one trading platform, thereby creating substantial benefits - such as lower cost of trading - to our customers. This will increase the attractiveness of the Nordic equity market,” says Hans-Ole Jochumsen, President NASDAQ OMX Nordic.
NASDAQ OMX intends to begin offering trading on March 23, 2009. In the first phase, trading will be offered in the 25 largest Norwegian listed shares. In the next phases NASDAQ OMX will extend the trading to the remaining Norwegian listed shares. Trading will take place on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. A summarized prospectus for each Norwegian share admitted to trading will be published on www.nasdaqomxtrader.com/nordic.
The move is a part of the company's strategic roadmap for Nordic equities, which aims at increasing the attractiveness of the Nordic equity market. The roadmap for Nordic equities consists of:- trading in equities from all Nordic countries on one trading platform
- introduction of full central counterparty clearing from October 9, 2009, subject to regulatory approval, which will also apply for Norwegian shares.
- introduction of a new trading platform, INET, on December 7, 2009
