KUWAIT: Kuwait’s stock exchange plans to launch derivatives trading in the first half of 2014 using its new Nasdaq-backed trading system, a senior stock exchange official said.
Kuwait’s bourse launched the “X-stream” trading system in May last year at a cost of around 18.3m Kuwaiti dinars ($65m), part of its biggest technical overhaul in nearly two decades.
The main aims of the Nasdaq OMX Group Inc system were to launch the trading of financial instruments and to clamp down on dubious market activity.
The exchange hopes to launch derivatives trading in the first six months of next year “if things proceed as expected,” Stock Exchange Projects Manager Issam Alusaimi said.
“By the end of this year we will have finished everything related to IT infrastructure...the next step is to take advantage of the technology.”
A Kuwaiti investment firm has already expressed interest in trading options, Alusaimi said, saying that the company’s request had now been sent to the financial market watchdog. The system will also be ready for trading futures, exchange-traded funds and Islamic bonds if similar requests are made, he said.
Reuters
