GL TRADE, a trading and connectivity solutions provider, has opened a Shanghai-based data centre to support its market data services and direct market access to A and B shares listed on China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.
According to Franck Peltier, CEO of GL TRADE Asia, a handful of local Chinese brokers are already supplying DMA services via GLNET to Singapore- and Hong Kong-based foreign investors with QFII (qualified overseas institutional investor) status. “Sell-side prop desks and large hedge funds will now be able to access A and B shares as well as Chinese stocks dual-listed in Singapore and Hong Kong from a single platform for arbitrage purposes,” he told theTRADEnews.com.
A shares are accessible by local or foreign investors with a QFII certification, while B shares can be traded by other foreign investors. GLNET is the firm’s proprietary international trading and data network which provides more than 650 financial institutions with access to around 140 trading venues.
Peltier added that the Shanghai data hub would enable GL TRADE, as an accredited market data distributor to the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, to deliver data faster and more cost-effectively. “Because they will no longer have to connect via a lease line to Hong Kong, we expect more Chinese brokers will subscribe to our market data services,” he said.
Peltier also confirmed that GL TRADE would also be opening an office in Shanghai in 2009. GL TRADE currently has operations in eight countries across Asia and provides connectivity to around 30 cash and derivatives markets across the region.