New contingency procedures for the Hang Seng Index Futures (HSI) and the Mini-HSI (MHI) Futures markets in the event of a market interruption will become effective on Thursday, 1 August 2002.

Under the new contingency procedures, the trading arrangements for different markets will vary according to the system recovery time.

• If the HKATS system is interrupted during the afternoon trading session but recovers before 3:30 p.m., after adding 30 minutes of preparation for market readiness, there will be at least 15 minutes of trading before the scheduled market close at 4:15 p.m. and there will not be extended trading hours.

• If the HKATS system recovers between 3:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., the Exchange will only extend trading in the HSI and MHI futures markets beyond the scheduled market close at 4:15 p.m. so that there will be a 15 minute trading session. The extended trading will be a 15 minute trading session after system recovery provided that the market will not close beyond 5:00 p.m.

• If the HKATS system recovers after 4:15 p.m., there will be no extension.

There will not be an extension in the trading hours on the last trading day of the expired HSI and MHI spot month futures contracts. All HSI and MHI spot month contracts will be automatically deleted from HKATS at the predefined expiry time (as defined in the futures contract specifications).

The extension of trading hours will only be applicable for the HSI and the MHI Futures markets. The trading hours in the HSI Options, MSCI China Free Index, HIBOR, Three-year Exchange Fund Note, Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures, Stock Futures and Options, International Stock Futures and Options markets will not be extended beyond their scheduled close.