Later this year more than 150 public companies currently traded on the OTC will be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, and trading hours may be extended into the afternoon, according to a securities market revamp plan by the securities regulatory agency.
A number of major revamps in the securities market have been preliminarily determined by the Securities and Futures Commission (
One of the most important measures is that any public company traded on the OTC-ROC (
It is estimated that by the beginning of next year the total number of listed companies in Taiwan will be increased to 700 companies from the current 400.
Taiwan's Securities and Futures Commission said it approved regulations to allow an extra 30 minutes of ``fixed price'' trading each day -- a step towards full afternoon trading.
Investors will be able to buy and sell stocks -- though only at their noon closing price -- between 12:30pm and 1pm from April 3, the SEC said.
Taiwan stocks currently trade from 9am until noon.
Meanwhile, the OTC-ROC will become a preparatory market for public companies to be listed on the Exchange.
Any company with capitalization of less than NT$500 million will not be able to list its shares on the Exchange directly; instead it will have to trade on the OTC-ROC first.
After it meets the listing requirement of the Exchange, the company will then be listed on the Exchange through a document review process.
The goal behind the policy is that government officials have decided to enlarge the scale of the securities market. Increasing the number of listed companies is the top priority, sources said.
By increasing the number of listed companies to over 700 it would make Taiwan's securities market one of the largest in Asia, thus attracting more foreign investment into Taiwan. And it could be a bargaining chip on negotiations for dual-listings on other international stock exchanges.
In the long run, the government will promote a merger between the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the OTC-ROC to consolidate the secondary securities market.
Under the revamp policy, the Taiwan Stock Exchange will simplify current listing procedures.
After the annual reports of OTC-ROC traded companies are disclosed at the end of April every year, the Taiwan Stock Exchange will select those companies that meet the listing requirements of the Exchange. The Exchange will then approve those companies to be listed on the Exchange through a simplified review process on a batch basis.
However, if some OTC-ROC traded companies refuse to be listed on the Exchange, they could still be traded on the OTC-ROC. The difference is that the margin requirements of the Exchange is currently 50 percent and the OTC-ROC is 70 percent, which will not be altered in the future.
In order to compensate the possible revenue loss of the OTC-ROC, the Exchange will have to withdraw a certain percentage of its earnings for the OTC-ROC.
The purpose of extending trading hours is in promoting internationalization and connecting the trading in Taiwan's securities market with other securities markets in the world on a 24 hours basis, according to government officials.
Analysts said the revamp plan will greatly help the internationalization of Taiwan's securities market by increasing the number of listed companies and extending trading hours.
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