Liquidnet, the buy-side focused block trading venue, has reported record volumes in Asian equities during January 2011, as alternative sources of liquidity continue to gain traction in the region.
During January 2011, Liquidnet traded US$1.58 billion across the eight markets it serves in Asia, representing a 25% increase compared to January 2010.
The average execution size on the platform in January was US$1.44 million, a 26% rise year-on-year. According to Liquidnet, 32% of trades are currently conducted via members outside of the Asia-Pacific region.
Liquidnet's strong start to the year follows record trading in 2010, with US$14 billion traded last year, 37% higher than 2009.
“The institutional trading community is increasingly recognising that the Liquidnet trading platform – proven for almost a decade in more developed markets – has come of age in Asia and is a vital source for efficient trading of large blocks of stock,” said Lee Porter, head of Asia-Pacific, Liquidnet. “The recent addition of Malaysian and Indonesian equities – two exciting and popular markets for money managers – has also helped give more choice to our members and, in turn, deliver additional liquidity to the Liquidnet community.”
Indonesian equities were made available on Liquidnet on 25 January 2011, with US$4.3 million worth of trades recorded on the first day.
Meanwhile, trading technology provider and agency broker Tora Trading has reported a 120% rise in volumes during January 2011 for its TORA Crosspoint Japanese aggregation service compared to December 2010. The firm claims that US$1.2 billion worth of liquidity was available in the service during January 2011.
TORA Crosspoint comprises Tora's internal liquidity and flow from a number of external partners including Credit Suisse's Crossfinder, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's MLXN, SBI Japannext, Kabu.com, Instinet and Chi-X Japan.
By its own data, TORA Crosspoint now accounts for 5% of the total trading volume on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Additional markets and broking partners are expected to join TORA Crosspoint during the course of this year.