Goldman Sachs expands SIGMA X MTF to emerging markets

SIGMA X MTF has added Czech Republic and Hungary markets as Goldman Sachs looks to incorporate emerging markets to its trading venue.

Goldman Sachs has confirmed it has expanded its product universe for the SIGMA X multilateral trading facility (MTF) to include emerging markets.

The investment bank said that it will incorporate emerging markets on the SIGMA X MTF, and has recently gone live with the Czech Republic and Hungary as part of the expansion. With the new markets, SIGMA X MTF now offers trading in 3,100 instruments across 16 countries.

“SIGMA X anticipates that this addition will aid members in their ability to execute these typically more volatile instruments within the benign environments of SIGMA X auction and non-displayed books,” Goldman Sachs said in a statement.

Since launching the new markets in late-May, statistics from the institution revealed that average auction size on Czech Republic and Hungary reached €20,700 and €8,800 respectively. The average auction size for both markets exceeded the average auction size across all SIGMA X markets, which totalled €7,500.

Goldman Sachs added that its members have also continued to use its SIGMA X market data for large in scale (LIS) trading. The Hungary and Czech Republic auctions also increased on average by 45% and 30% respectively due to new orders joining during the SIGMA X auction call. The largest trades executed stood at €49,200 and €113,600 respectively.

News of Goldman Sachs’ move to expand into emerging markets with SIGMA X MTF follows a recent record for the venue’s periodic auction. Goldman Sachs saw a record trade of $24.1 million executed on the SIGMA X periodic auction on 27 May, which was executed in a single auction call with the trade size increasing from $1.7 million at the auction initiation phase, to $24.1 million at auction uncross.  

The bank also said at the time that SIGMA X MTF is increasingly seeing auctions result in LIS-sized trades, and the percentage of LIS activity in the periodic auctions surged from around 7% in February, to highs of 15% in April.

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