Slovenia's Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) has migrated to Xetra, the trading system developed and operated by Deutsche Börse.
The move is part of an overall strategy by the Central and Eastern European Stock Exchange Group (CEESEG) to switch all of its cash markets to a single trading platform by the end of 2011. As well as LJSE, CEESEG includes the national exchanges in Vienna, Budapest and Prague.
By moving to Xetra, the LJSE aims to bring the Slovene market closer to international investors, increase liquidity and improve price discovery.
Xetra is used by over 250 financial firms and over 4,800 stock brokers, with investors having direct access to the system from 18 countries in Europe and one in the Middle East.
LJSE has also admitted Vienna-based Raiffeisen Centrobank to operate as a remote member on its exchange. The new member was expected to start trading “soon” after Xetra launched on 6 December 2010.
The exchange expects other prominent international banks to start trading with the LJSE, while Andrej Sketa, president of the LJSE management board added that products listed on the exchange are becoming available to a much wider investor pool.
“We are pleased that a bank with such a high regional and international profile has decided to join membership of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. This reinforces our expectations that the market is witnessing positive impacts,” said Sketa.