Asean bourses’ trading links to begin by June

The Asean Exchanges, which groups seven bourses of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations including the Philippine Stock Exchange, expects to roll out its connectivity trading platform in June as planned.

The other six are the Indonesia Stock Exchange, Bursa Malaysia (BM), Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), Singapore Exchange (SGX), and Vietnam’s Hochiminh Stock Exchange and Hanoi Stock Exchange.

Chief executives of the seven exchanges said in a statement that the first stage of the Asean Trading Link will see the linkup of SGX and BM in June, with SET joining up in August.

Representatives of the exchanges gathered last Friday in Singapore for the 16th Asean Exchanges CEOs Meeting. PSE vice president Rachelle C. Blanch attended in lieu of president Hans B. Sicat.

“The collaborative decision of the member-exchanges to roll out the Asean Trading Link will mark our first key milestone towards breaking down the barriers to cross border trade in Asean,” SGX CEO Magnus Bocker said.

“Through the trading link, investors in Asean will enjoy a new ease of access to a wider investment selection as well as tap the region’s growth opportunities,” Bocker said.

He added that the three exchanges that will link up in the first stage represent about two-thirds of the $2.1 trillion combined market capitalization of the seven members.

In November 2011, Asean Exchanges said interconnection with the remaining four exchanges, incuding PSE, “will be announced at a future date.”

Back then, the PSE said in a disclosure it was temporarily postponing its original plan to be included in the Asean Trading Link while it “undertakes efforts to generate further interest and support for the project from local brokers and the investing public.”

Further, in last week’s meeting, the Asean Exchanges formalized an agreement with the FTSE Group to provide a range of Asean market data and analytics.