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PLUS Markets Group plc (“PMG”) today announces details of a programme of trading platform enhancements, to broaden further its execution service offering and create new liquidity possibilities on the PLUS market. Its enhanced offering will be available for participant connectivity before the end of this year.
The enhancements will include a “dark liquidity pool” for small & mid-cap securities, to be known as “the PLUS-pool”, providing an anonymous order-driven trading mechanism to complement PMG’s current market-maker offering in such securities. The PLUS-pool will enable large institutional block orders in small & mid-cap securities to interact efficiently in a dark environment on PLUS, thereby reducing market impact costs.
The combination of transparent quote-driven and dark order-driven transaction services in small and mid-cap securities will complete PMG’s comprehensive suite of best execution possibilities in this important area of the market. This suite has been designed to suit the diverse needs of its customer base, facilitating both price improvement in retail sizes and electronic execution of high-value institutional business.
The enhancement programme will also see those UK liquid securities currently trading on PLUS move from the existing quote-driven board to a new “hittable quote board”, to be known as “the PLUS-HQ”. By facilitating the on-book execution of market maker quotes via a choice of order types - alongside continued support for the Retail Service Provider trading model - the PLUS-HQ will attract greater transaction volumes from the increasingly sophisticated order routing technologies being deployed in securities markets.
Both the PLUS-pool and the PLUS-HQ will be supported by Central CounterParty services (“CCP”) provided by LCH.Clearnet, which PMG selected on the basis of its comprehensive small & mid-cap coverage and unparalleled experience in UK securities. LCH.Clearnet is the leading independent equities CCP group in Europe, serving major international exchanges and trading platforms.
This programme of trading enhancements follows the successful launch of its current trading platform in time for MiFID in November 2007, supporting the dramatic expansion of its market offering. The PLUS platform comprises X-Stream trading technology from OMX - providing rich functionality, flexibility and capacity to manage large transaction volumes - combined with a market surveillance solution provided by SMARTS.
The PLUS market has already become an established pool of small and mid-cap liquidity, competing credibly against established trading venues. In the first six months of 2008, 2.1 million bargains worth £16.9 billion value, representing some 11.4 billion shares, took place on PLUS. In today’s rapidly-changing exchange environment, PMG has received strong demand from equity market participants to develop further its quote-driven trading offering.
John Crackett, Director of Technology at PLUS Markets, said: “Having already established our market position in small & mid-cap securities, we are delighted to be leveraging further our trading platform’s functionality and capacity. By introducing the PLUS-pool and the PLUS-HQ, we expect to attract new order flow and we are already working with customers towards implementation.”
