Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) has announced liquidity providers, margin rates and information vendors’ access codes for the gold futures contract that will begin trading in its derivatives market on Monday, 20 October 2008.

Liquidity Providers

Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited (HKFE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HKEx, has appointed Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd via Po Sang Futures Ltd, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Celestial Commodities Ltd and Wing Fung Futures Ltd as liquidity providers (LPs) for its gold futures contract to bolster market price visibility and facilitate trading in the new contract.

LPs will be quoting prices continuously for at least 70 per cent of the time in a calendar month with a bid / offer spread of not more than US$0.50 for at least 10 contracts in the spot month contract (or any further contract months as agreed with LPs), or responding to quote requests for at least 50 per cent of the total quote requests in the spot month contract in a calendar month with a bid / offer spread of not more than US$0.70 for at least 10 contracts within 10 seconds, with a display of at least 10 seconds.

The LP appointments are subject to commercial agreements between HKFE and LPs in terms of price quoting services and incentives.  Under the agreements, the Chief Executive of HKFE may, at his or her sole discretion, waive parts of the obligations in view of adverse market conditions which may arise from time to time. 

Margin Rates

HKFE also has set margin rates for its gold futures.  The table below shows the minimum margins to be collected by an Exchange Participant from its clients in respect of their dealings in the contract.  The margins are based on the clearing company's normal procedures and standard margining methodology.

HKFE emphasises that the above are minimum rates and Exchange Participants should set their margin requirements according to their clients' individual circumstances.

Information Vendors’ Access Codes for Gold Futures (as of 16 October 2008)