Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) CEO Esther Levanon is mulling to extend the trading day to 5:30 pm, in order to boost trading volumes. At a press conference today, she said that the TASE board of directors would discuss the matter at its next meeting in January.
"40% of the weight of Tel Aviv 25 Index shares are dual-listed shares, and currently there is no overlap in the trading," she said. "Trading volumes will not return to what they once were. We will continue to dream of 2007."
In December 2008, the TASE shortened the trading day by one hour, claiming that this would not affect trading volumes. Levanon and other TASE executives reached this conclusion following the strike at the time, which did not affect trading volumes despite the shorter workdays.
Extending the trading day was first broached by the Hauser Committee in October 2005. It recommended extending the trading day by 30 minutes to 5:30, in order to create an overlap with early trading on Wall Street. Over time, it turned out that there was no substantial increase in trading volume, because the market trend at Wall Street's opening did not necessary determine how the session would end, and TASE investors adjusted to developments on Wall Street at the TASE opening on the following day.
Levanon also said that 71% of transaction orders on the TASE were by algorithm trading, i.e. the transactions were automatically made by algo-trading machines. "Without this trading, we would not receive most orders in Tel Aviv," she said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 23, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012