South Korea is set to introduce an alternate stock trading platform that will operate alongside Korea Exchange and help bolster market liquidity with extended trading hours of up to 12 hours a day.
Securities firms are in the final stage of preparing infrastructure for the platform, called Nextrade (NXT), which is scheduled to go live on March 4.
NXT made the announcement in a statement posted on its website on February 12.
The new platform will form a dual-market structure with Korea Exchange, whose trading hours are from 9 am to 3.30 pm.
NXT will operate pre-market from 8 am to 8.50 am, and after-market from 3 pm to 8 pm.
That means investors will be able to trade for up to 12 hours a day, and they “will also benefit from lower transaction costs and improved trading environment”, according to NXT.
Guidelines from the Financial Supervisory Service state that investors can place their trading orders with either Korea Exchange or NXT and that securities firms must prioritise those instructions.