NSE Building
The new trading platform of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)- NASDAQ X-Stream- will become operational by second quarter of 2013.
Speaking at the contract signing ceremony for the platform with officials of NASDAQ OMX in Lagos, yesterday, the CEO of the NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the deal signified a milestone in the effort of the exchange to upgrade its current trading platform, Horizon, to the cutting-edge NASDAQ X-Stream.
According to him, the new platform is a high performance, robust and scalable, multi-asset, multi-market matching trading engine, noting that the NSE and officials of NASDAQ OMX would work together to ensure that the platform is deployed in Q2 of 2013.
He said: “The new trading platform will enable the NSE have the fastest trading engine in Africa and investors, through their stockbrokers, will have real-time access to market prices, their portfolios and be enabled to execute market orders in near real-time from anywhere and on a wide range of devices including smart phones.”
Onyema noted that the new system would improve transparency and provide efficient price discovery in the market, among other benefits, stressing that investors in the market would benefit significantly from the system upgrade as it would afford them the opportunity to diversify their investment portfolio.
“With this new system, equities, a fully functional bond market and Exchange Traded Funds ( ETFs) will be accommodated in phase one of the projects while derivatives will be introduced in the second phase. The system will also enable the NSE to host other exchanges,” he promised.
Speaking in the same vein, the Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology (MOT) of the Exchange, Mr. Adeolu Bajomo, explained that the process of selecting the new trading platform was rigorous.
“We undertook a detailed and robust evaluation process that culminated in the selection of NASDAQ OMX X-Stream, a system currently used by over 94 exchanges around the world and reputed to be one of the leading trading platforms in the market,” he said.
Vice-Chairman of NASDAQ OMX, Mr. Sandy Frucher, and President, Market Technology of the company, Mr. Lars Ottersgard, signed on behalf of NASDAQ while Onyema and Bajomo, signed on behalf of NSE witnessed by many council members of the exchange, including the former Interim Administrator, Mr. Emmanuel Ikazoboh.
Meanwhile, trading continued on the bullish note as the NSE All-share Index rose by 0.53 per cent to close at 21,895.41, while market capitalisation added N37 billion to close at N6.983 trillion.
Twenty-nine equities added value led by Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc with N6.60, while 13 equities declined in value led by PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc with N0.26.