SIX Swiss Exchange and Liquidnet, the global institutional block trading network, have announced they will now offer block liquidity in six more European markets through Liquidnet’s block trading execution platform. SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service (SLS) will now cover 11 markets and 4,200 stocks. The platform for executing block trades now will include 1,200 additional stocks from the Belgian, Danish, Finnish, Austrian, Portuguese and Swedish equities markets.
SLS was launched in July 2011 and originally covered 3,000 stocks from markets in Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands. SLS is considered an efficient and cost-effective way to execute large block trades increasing liquidity in executions without compromising security and anonymity. All trades are executed at the mid-point price of the primary exchange and further cost savings are made possible by avoiding market impact costs, a key benefit of Liquidnet’s global trading platform. As of July 2011, the average trade size through SLS was CHF 725,000 (US$ 741,877), which is significantly larger than any other multilateral trading facility or exchange – dark or lit.
The SIX Swiss Exchange/Liquidnet partnership was the first time an exchange and a trading network had joined forces. SIX Swiss Exchange members are able to direct executable block orders to Liquidnet’s global trading network, which includes 700 of the world’s leading asset management firms who collectively manage US$12.4 trillion in assets.
Reporting by Jaya Menon