NSE: Trading commences on new platform next week

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has said it is set to commence trading activities on its new trading platform called X-GEN from next week. A statement made available to our correspondent on Tuesday quoted the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, as saying, “We have had a series of market readiness tests, created a new market structure that is world class and are now making final preparations to cutover to our next Generation platform this weekend.”

 According to the NSE, the new trading platform is expected to open up an unprecedented level of innovative trading capabilities for the Nigerian capital market, providing low latency trading, and straight through processing from broker order management systems to the Exchange.

It is also expected to provide direct-market access for mobile access through smartphones to the retail investors, leveraging on the 120 million mobile phone penetration already in the country. The Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology, NSE, Mr. Ade Bajomo, was also said to have stated while giving his green signal for the platform last Saturday that, “We have great confidence in this platform. Three market readiness tests were successfully executed over the past five weeks with a focus on the performance of the trading engine and integration of all interfaces including remote users coming in via the Fix gateway. “Brokers and NSE technical team were able to successfully place orders, migrate data and complete a series of full dress rehearsal.  It is exciting that we are able to execute and test all our tasks and are confident with the results.”

The statement described X-GEN as a high performance, robust and scalable, multi-asset and multi-market matching trading engine. Bajomo added that Nigeria was the first country in West Africa to adopt the trading system. He said, “As we all know, the trading system is at the heart of any exchange and the shifting to the new platform and ensuring its smooth transition was a key priority for the NSE. We are extremely delighted to co-operate with Nasdaq, LasalleTech and our several partners to adopt this cutting-edge platform.” The NSE had announced plans to introduce the new platform in July with Onyema telling journalists that it was scheduled to be introduced before the end of the third quarter of the year. Stockbrokers for their part had said they were delighted about the move, stressing that they would be ready to use it. Last week, the NSE disclosed that it had trained over 627 stockbrokers on how to use the platform, ahead of its inauguration. Also, it has suspended corporate actions until October 7, 2013, at which time the new platform would have been put to use.

Source:(The Punch)