30 March 2007
The London Stock Exchange’s new TradElect trading system, the final phase of a four-year technology overhaul, is set go live for the first time in South Africa after the exchange extended its IT contract with the JSE Limited for a further five years.
The extended contract will see the LSE’s next-generation trading system going live on the Johannesburg and Namibia markets on 2 April ahead of its introduction on the London market in the second quarter of the year.
The LSE and JSE have also agreed to develop their technology and business cooperation further “to encourage growth in listings, trading and data sales,” the LSE said in a statement last week.
“Over the last five years, the JSE has developed a strong relationship with the London Stock Exchange, and we are excited to be the first exchange to use their new technology,” JSE chief operating officer Leanne Parsons said at a formal contract signing ceremony in London.
“As part of the JSE’s broader effort to strengthen its role as a competitive force in the global financial marketplace, the JSE is pleased to be able to implement the LSE’s new superior trading platform.”
LSE chief executive Clara Furse said the exchange looked forward “to extending the scope of our partnership to the benefit of both of our markets and companies.
“As the leading exchange in Africa, the JSE will, through the adoption of TradElect, be operating on world-leading technology, combining very low levels of latency with high levels of scalability and systems reliability.”
Since May 2002, the LSE has supplied the JSE with its trading system, JSE SETS, on an application service provider basis. JSE market participants access the trading system via a dedicated communications link between Johannesburg and London.
Since the migration of the JSE’s trading to SETS, the average daily number of trades on the JSE has increased by over 140%, from 15 000 in May 2002 to 37 000 in February 2007, operating with 100% availability.
According to the LSE, TradElect’s introduction is the final and most significant phase of the exchange’s four-year transition to next-generation trading technology, representing “the biggest development to the LSE’s trading infrastructure since the implementation of the Sequence Programme and SETS between 1994 and 1997.”
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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