Investors will have greater access to risk hedging tools when an after-hours futures trading platform launches next year, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Thursday.
The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) and the nation’s 15 exclusive futures commission merchants plan to establish the platform, which is expected to be launched in May next year, the commission told a news conference.
“Expanding after-hours futures trading is part of the commission’s plan to address issues around shorter trading hours in the local securities market, and would provide investors with a hedging tool against overnight developments in the global markets,” commission Vice Chairman Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂) said.
FUTURES MARKET
“Turnover in the futures market would increase along with rising volatility in the stock market,” Cheng said.
The platform would enable after-hours trading of TAIFEX Futures that tracks the board between 3pm and 5am, beginning between 70 and 75 minutes after the end of regular trading between 8:45am and 1:45pm, the financial commission said.
The longer hours would help local investors react to changes during trading hours in the US and Europe, the commission said.
Initially, the more popular TAIFEX Futures and option contracts would be included in the platform, as well as futures and options contracts tracking US dollar to Chinese yuan exchange rates, Securities and Futures Bureau Chief Secretary Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) said.
ROUND-THE-CLOCK
“Brokerages have been requesting expanded after-hours trading, in light of the availability of round-the-clock trading at futures exchanges in Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong,” Tsai said.
The platform is expected to bring in additional earnings of NT$261 million (US$8.15 million) for the TAIFEX in its first year, Tsai said, adding that the exchange would need to employ an additional 210 people.
UNDECIDED
However, unlike the futures market, Tsai said that brokerages, dealers and investors are undecided about expanding trading hours for the Taiwan Stock Exchange as a way to boost persistently anemic turnover, and that it is harder to reach a consensus to implement change.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day