Yen dismisses the idea of extended stock market hours

Minister of Finance Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章) said yesterday that trading hours for the stock market will not be extended for another one to two years.

"Because trading hours have just been extended to 1:30pm, it should remain that way for at least one to two years," Yen said.

In a meeting earlier this week, Yen said that the original idea was to extend stock trading hours to 3:30pm. But in order to avoid disrupting the lives of investors and hurting the circulation numbers of evening newspapers, the government settled on a 1:30pm closing time.

Securities and Futures Commission officials said Monday that the new trading hours would be reviewed after six months.

But before any changes can take place, there should be a period of discussion, officials said.