The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is getting a new trading system that will make equity market transactions 400 times faster.
“The migration is planned for the first half of 2012 and it is expected that JSE members will benefit from executing transactions almost 400 times faster than the present trading solution,” the JSE said in a statement on Thursday.
The JSE would move its equity market trading activity - the buying and selling of company shares - onto a system called Millennium Exchange.
The new system would operate from Johannesburg, instead of London where it is currently based.
There had been a “handful” of incidents where the JSE had to stop trading, due to problems with “international connectivity”.
“By moving the engine to Johannesburg, we eliminate this problem and are able to offer our clients improved service availability and stability,” JSE chief operating officer and head of the equity market Leanne Parsons said.
The system was expected to increase the equity volumes traded on the JSE and therefore liquidity.
“In our experience, whenever we take a step forward with our trading technology, trading volumes also follow,” said Parsons.
“If we want to remain a world-class and relevant exchange in a highly competitive industry, we must remain abreast of technological advances.”
Millennium Exchange is the “flagship product” of MillenniumIT, which creates technology solutions for capital markets, has headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group. - Sapa