The largest domestic exchanges in Asia struggled to attract greater volumes in 2010, with only Singapore and Hong Kong registering modest levels of growth.
The region's trading volumes were choppy in the first half of the year, with a low of US$1.021 trillion recorded in February before volumes started to recover in September, reaching a yearly peak of US$2.2 trillion in November.
According to their own figures, trading on the main board of the Singapore Exchange grew 5% to US$289.4 billion last year, from US$274.89 million in 2009, while equity trading on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing grew 9.5% to US$2.19 trillion in 2010 from US$1.98 trillion the previous year.
Trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), which implemented its new high-speed Arrowhead trading platform in January 2010, fell 5.3% to US$4.25 trillion in 2010 from US$4.48 trillion in 2009.
The drop in trading on the TSE could signal a shift by traders towards proprietary trading systems (PTSs) in the country.
Chi-X Japan, the PTS launched by Chi-X Global in July saw a total turnover of US$2.14 billion by the end of 2010, including a 130% rise from US$600 million in November to US$1.382 billion in December, according to data from information services provider Thomson Reuters. In addition, volumes on fellow PTS SBI Japannext grew almost threefold during last year, from US$1 billion in January 2010, to US$2.93 billion in December.
The Korea Exchange also suffered a fall in volumes, with total equity trading in 2010 falling 8% to US$1.2 trillion, from US$1.3 trillion in 2009.
anish.puaar@thetrade.ltd.uk
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