Japanese derivatives market the Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE) has added broker BNP Paribas as an official market maker for the Nikkei 225 mini stock index futures contract.
The addition of BNP Paribas as a market maker is expected to help increase liquidity on the exchange. BNP Paribas will take up its new role on the OSE from 11 July, joining the
existing market makers, Barclays Capital Japan, Newedge Japan and ABN AMRO Clearing Tokyo.
The Nikkei 225 mini traded some 8,502,173 contracts in June 2011, totalling US$81 billion in value, up from 7,022,957 contracts worth US$67 billion in May.
The OSE introduced high-speed derivatives trading in February this year and signed a memorandum of understanding with India's Bombay Stock Exchange in April to develop opportunities including cross-licensing of indices.