ASEAN stock exchanges eye cross-border trading in 2012

Reuters: Stock exchanges in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand delayed a plan to set up electronic trading links to attract investment and raise liquidity, saying it would be done in 2012.

The plan, set to be finalised this year, will be joined by exchanges in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam at a later date.

The proposal to launch cross-border trading was initially set to be in place in 2010, but has already been delayed for reasons such as the development of a new platform.

Singapore Exchange and Bursa Malaysia will link up in June 2012, followed by Thailand .SETI in August, a joint statement said after the heads of the seven stocks exchanges met in Hanoi on Friday.

The Philippines .PSI will come in at a later date while Indonesia .JKSE and two markets in Vietnam .VNI .HNXI will announce their participation pending approval from their regulatory bodies, according to the statement issued late on Friday.

The meeting also agreed to launch the ASEAN Trading Link in June 2012, it added.

The 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) wants to establish an economic community modelled on the European Union by 2015 and the market venture will support one of its aims, allowing capital to move more freely between states.

The ASEAN Trading Link is aimed to electronically interconnect the participating markets and facilitate cross-border order trading seamlessly.The seven exchanges of Southeast Asian have a combined capitalisation of about $2.4 trillion and were the darlings of emerging market investors in 2010.