Turkish exchange unveils liquidity package

The Istanbul Stock Exchange has published a raft of new practices to be introduced across the remainder of the year that are intended to improve liquidity on the country's equity markets.
By None

The Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) has published a raft of new practices to be introduced across the remainder of the year that are intended to improve liquidity on the country's equity markets.

The measures include the introduction of order cancellation on the exchange as well as buyer and seller anonymity for executed transactions. Both measures come into effect on 8 October 2010.

Following the changes, pending orders in the ISE trading system may be cancelled one by one, on order basis, in full or in part. The new arrangement does not include quotation orders entered for the securities traded by market makers on the collective products or warrants markets. The ISE will charge a fee equal to 0.025 basis points of the amount of the cancelled orders.

Market participants have stressed the importance of order cancellation on the exchange, which is expected to facilitate the expansion of electronic order flow and use of execution algorithms on the ISE over the coming months.

In addition, buyer and seller information will no longer be included in transaction reports sent to data vendors from 8 October, but trading books including member codes will be available to ISE members at the end of the next trading day.

The exchange will also extend the trading hours of its Watchlist Companies Market session to 14.00-17.30 local time from 1 October. Previously, trading was conducted for one hour from 14.00.

The ISE said it would begin to reduce tick sizes “gradually” from 1 November.

The moves coincide with plans by the Turkish government to amend its Capital Markets Law, which governs securities trading and relating activities in the country, to bring legislation in line with European standard practice and initiatives such as MiFID.

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