“We have seen strong demand for international securities. All categories of investors will be able to trade in these securities on the Saint Petersburg Exchange, including unqualified investors," Saint Petersburg Exchange general director Evgeny Serdyukov notes.

Trades will be made using a new trading & clearing system, which was developed by RTS not-for-profit partnership against order of the Saint Petersburg Exchange. As the exchange noted, a market model, when high-frequency algorithmic traders can act solely as market makers, providing liquidity to the list of the exchange’s trades instead of taking it off the market, will be used.

Trading in foreign securities will be conducted daily from 10:00 until 24:00 in two modes: uninterruptible anonymous auction and closing auction at the prices of the most liquid equity markets. The Central Counterparty is MFB Clearing Center. Remarkably, high-frequency and algo traders are allowed to participate as market makers only, pouring liquidity into the trade blotter, not draining the market.

The Head of St Petersburg exchange also told the press that the decision to launch trading on Black Friday was intended as a surprise for both Russian and US finance professionals. The first foreign security trade was a lot of Apple shares at USD 119 through Zerich as broker.

RTS President Roman Goryunov named 15 December as the launch date for trading in Alibaba, the Chinese online retailer with a sensational market value-doubling IPO in NY. “Foreign share trading in Russia is, on the one hand, a breakthrough in stock exchange infrastructure, and on the other hand, an attempt to offer Russian investors a new asset in circumstances when investment is, to put it mildly, tough”, stressed Roman Goryunov.

Denis Sedlov

Financial markets megaregulator, Trading infrastructure, Project Group №1