Chi-X Europe, a pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), has started trading in its sixth European market. The MTF announced today that it had begun trading, clearing and settling the top five stocks of Sweden’s OMX Stockholm 30 index. It plans to introduce the remainder of the index’s names by the end of March.
The OMX Stockholm 30 now joins the UK’s FTSE 100, The Netherlands’ AEX 25, Germany’s DAX 30, France’s CAC 40 and Switzerland’s SMI 20 on the list of indices Chi-X Europe trades in. The five top stocks of the OMX Stockholm 30 are Ericsson ‘B’, Volvo ‘B’, Atlas Copco ‘A’, TeliaSonera, and Hennes & Mauritz ‘B’.
“Since launching almost one year ago, we have introduced trading services for many of Europe’s most heavily-traded equities and are pleased to today extend coverage to these top Scandinavian names,” said Peter Randall, CEO of Chi-X Europe, in a statement.
Chi-X claims the addition of Swedish stocks is an important milestone for trading in the Scandinavian markets. It says trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange costs 1.07bps, compared with 0.05bps on Chi-X Europe, based on a passive/aggressive rebate ratio of 50:50. Chi-X charges ‘aggressive’ traders – those who take liquidity – 0.3bps and pays ‘passive’ traders – those who post it – a rebate of 0.2bps.
It also points out that central counterparty services have previously not been available for Swedish equities, but now Chi-X Europe is trading OMX Stockholm 30 stocks, clearing and settlement for them will be centralised using Fortis’s European Multilateral Clearing Facility (EMCF). Trades in these stocks will be settled in the Nordic Central Securities Depository, and Chi-X says they will be fully fungible for clients whether traded on Chi-X Europe or on the primary market. Chi-X estimates that overall trading, clearing and settlement through Chi-X Europe and EMCF will be more than 20 times cheaper than the current market infrastructure.