Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) confirms that the suspension of the Closing Auction Session (CAS) in its securities market will take effect from next Monday, 23 March 2009, following the successful completion of the market rehearsal last Saturday and the approval of necessary rule amendments by the Securities and Futures Commission.
With the suspension of the CAS from 23 March 2009, the securities market will close at 4:00 pm and HKEx will use its pre-CAS method for calculating closing prices for securities (ie based on the median of five snapshot nominal prices taken during the last minute prior to the end of the market's Afternoon Session). Trading of stock index futures and options in the derivatives market will end at 4:15 pm, and trading of stock options and futures will remain unchanged and close at 4:00 pm.
As a result of the suspension of the CAS, the Electronic Disclosure publication window applicable to issuer announcements after the close of afternoon trading will be modified to 4:15 pm to 11:00 pm from 23 March 2009 from the current publication window of 4:30 pm to 11:00 pm. Details of the Electronic Disclosure publication requirements can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions in the Electronic Disclosure section on the HKEx website.
As of today, over 90 per cent of Stock Exchange Participants (SEPs) using Broker Supplied Systems (BSS) have declared to HKEx their readiness for the suspension of the CAS on 23 March 2009. The remaining SEPs using BSS have indicated their readiness verbally and will submit the declaration after completing end-to-end testing and the second market rehearsal tomorrow (Saturday, 21 March 2009). All other trading devices supplied by the Stock Exchange, including on-floor and off-floor terminals and Multi-workstations, are also ready for the suspension.
Nearly 80 per cent (33 out of 43) of direct connection information vendors participated in and successfully completed the market rehearsal held last Saturday and the vast majority of the remaining 10 direct connection information vendors have separately confirmed their readiness. All information vendors have been reminded to ensure their readiness to support the suspension of the CAS and to participate in the market rehearsal this Saturday.
HKEx continues to offer all Exchange Participants (EPs) free test sessions this week (the last session was today) and has arranged tomorrow’s market rehearsal to help EPs, as well as other market participants, prepare for the changes.