Alternate trading venue SBI Japannext has reported its highest daily volumes since opening for trading in November 2006.
The proprietary trading system (PTS) hit ¥59.2 billion (US$756 million) in total value traded, or 3.5% of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) Wednesday, breaking its previous record of ¥58.2 billion (US$743 million), or 2.9% of the TSE on 9 August last year.
SBI Japannext’s executed a total of 97,797,641 trades today, while PTS rival Chi-X Japan saw 62,419,924 trades with a market value of ¥40.1 billion (US$512 million).
The spike came on a day when the Nikkei 225 index hit a six-month closing high, with overall trading volume also reaching a six-month high.
A move by the Bank of Japan (BOJ), which extended an asset buying programme initiated Tuesday to ¥10 trillion (US$128 billion), also pushed the Topix 100 index over 800 for the first time. The BOJ’s surprise move pushed the yen to a three-and-a-half-month low against the dollar and Japanese exporters reaped the rewards in the climbing market.
Competition from the PTSs has been oft cited as a motivating factor behind an upcoming merger between the TSE and the Osaka Securities Exchange. PTSs have been steadily gaining market share and the merger is expected to take place in January 2013, subject to regulatory approval.
"The new milestone gives us greater confidence that our market share is increasing in terms of percentage and volume compared to last year's August record," said Chuck Chon, CEO of SBI Japannext. "In trading, I believe volume is the more important indicator. What we have achieved with Wednesday's record is both. I strongly hope that we will have many more opportunities to share new records with SBI Japannext PTS venue participants and market fragmentation supporters."
On 2 February an outage at the TSE caused controversy when the Japanese regulator suspended PTSs from trading in 241 stocks which were halted on the TSE, yet the OSE continued trading.