Today the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) marks the first anniversary of the launch of the new equity trading platform Millennium Exchange and the return of the trading platform from London where it had been situated for ten years.
The immediate benefit for members was execution speeds almost 400 times faster than the previous trading solution and the move back to Johannesburg has allowed for greater operational stability and zero trading outages.
“The JSE’s move to the new equity system, completed on time and within budget, is a major achievement for our market. This success can be attributed to the hard work and collaboration between the exchange and its members. As in the past, whenever we’ve upgraded our trading systems we’ve also seen increased trade,” says Leanne Parson, Director of the JSE’s Equity Market. Parsons notes that since the implementation, the number of trades is up 57%, volumes by 4% value of trades by 21%.
After a volatile period in South African markets, JSE trading figures indicate that since 2 July 2012, 35 million trades have been processed with a record number of 290,259 trades executed on Friday 31 May 2013. “The system handled these record trades seamlessly,” adds Parsons.
The first year on the new system has seen 1,4 billion orders and 2,5 billion market data messages processed whilst maintaining 100% uptime.
Client response has been positive, noting the smooth transition and the benefits to their businesses. “The implementation of the MIT platform has manifested the following for our business: enhanced latency, significantly less downtime and, most importantly, better pricing for our clients,” says Simon Fillmore, CEO of Independent Securities a JSE member firm.