SSX launches remote trading system

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): The Surabaya Stock Exchange (SSX) launched the operation of an automated remote trading system yesterday in an attempt to boost its liquidity.

"The new system provides real time access for brokerage houses and therefore will increase the number of stock transactions on the SSX," SSX President Isaka Yoga told journalists yesterday.

The system, according to Isaka, is also connected to the Jakarta Stock Exchange's (JSX) trading system, known as the Jakarta Automated Trading System (JATS), the Parallel Information Bonds System and the clearing and settlement house PT KPEI in Jakarta.

The SSX, set up in 1989 as the first private stock exchange in the country, is almost inactive because most investors prefer to trade on the JSX due to the former's poor liquidity.

The SSX currently has 203 listed companies with total market capitalization of approximately Rp 194 trillion (US$82 billion) as a result of cross-listing arrangements with the JSX.

Of the 203 companies, only 11 are listed at the SSX on a single-listing arrangement.

Isaka said that about 50 brokerage houses are ready to use the system and 60 other firms have expressed their willingness to do so in the future.

He said that by installing the new system, the SSX wants to tell the investing public that they can make transactions through the exchange at competitive prices.

Isaka also said that in line with the SSX program to bring in exploration and mining companies, the management is currently looking for cooperation with stock exchanges in Australia and Canada, where many resources companies are listed.

It should be easy for exploration companies to go public through the SSX but none of them have done so.

Analysts have blamed the SSX's poor performance as the main reason why they have not listed on the exchange.

Instead, exploration companies are now looking for special treatment from the JSX. (15/alo)