THE Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), the recently established bourse with a single player, will increase the number of trade executions from twice to six times a day, a move that will take effect on March 11.

A CSX officer and the managing director of a securities firm said the move is an effort to bring greater opportunity to investors and improve liquidity.

The announcement, made yesterday, says the bourse currently opens at 8am, with the first execution starting at 9am and the second at 11:30am. The new timetable will see the exchange opening at 8am with the first execution at 9am as before, but the second execution will start at 9:30am, the third at 10 am, the fourth at 10:30am, the fifth at 11am and the sixth at 11:30am.     

“This amendment of the rules [or market operations change] marks a noticeable step in the development of the Cambodian securities market from a simple model to a more sophisticated one better able to respond to the needs of public investors,” Soleil Lamun, deputy-director for the Market Operations Department of CSX, said.

“The increase in the number of execution times will provide investors with more opportunities to buy or sell without having to wait a long time for the next execution. The new situation means investors will only have to wait 30 minutes,” he said.

“Since it provides investors with more opportunities to trade, it would attract greater order-placement on the CSX, and thus market liquidity would increase.

“For the time being, our market is open as an intermittently executing market. Our mission, however, is to move from single price auctions to the continuous-auction market. The increase in the number of execution times will be a good start for investors to practise a more frequent trading execution as preparation for a continuous market planned to launch in the next few years,” he said.

Han Kyung Tae, managing director of Tong Yang Securities (Cambodia) PLC, an underwriter for two state-owned enterprises, Phnom Penh Water Supply and Telecom Cambodia, said that by allowing greater opportunity for investors to join the market, the move will be a very positive one.

“CSX is providing more opportunities for investors to invest in the market. It is good news not only for investors but also for securities firms like us,” he said. “This move will also provide more liquidity into the market, and therefore it allows more time for investors to make decisions. And the trading volume will increase − that’s really positive.”

CSX is a joint venture between the Cambodian government and the Korea Exchange. It officially launched in April of last year with one state-owned enterprise, Phnom Penh Water Supply, listed. Two other state-owned enterprises are expected to join sometime this year.

The Post reported earlier this month that Taiwanese-owned Grand Twins International (Cambodia) PLC will become the first private company to list on the CSX in March, offering 12 million shares.

Phnom Penh Water Supply’s price closed at 6,600 riel yesterday, a 0.75 per cent drop from the previous day, with a total trade volume of 16,248 shares.