PSX signs agreement with Shenzhen

Stock Exchange to upgrade trading system

Ag APP

BEIJING: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) on Tuesday signed an agreement to upgrade trading and surveillance systems.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony held in Shenzhen, a major city in the Chinese province of Guangdong. General manager of Shenzhen Stock Exchange Wang Jianjun, chairman of Pakistan Stock Exchange Ltd. Sulaiman S. Mehdi, and general manager of China Financial Futures Exchange Huo Ruirong attended the signing ceremony.

It is an exciting practice in respect of the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), As a breakthrough in technological cooperation between emerging markets, it marks the first instance of Chinese securities technology system going global, a victory won by SZSE in the fierce international competition with global top suppliers.

According to the agreement, SZSE, based on its latest independently-developed trading and surveillance system and the actual development of Pakistan''s capital market will upgrade the existing PSX trading system and build a market surveillance system for PSX.

The new system will significantly improve PSX''s safe operation capacity, market operation efficiency, and risk control, further enhance the competitiveness and influence of PSX in the region, and lay a more solid foundation for the development and expansion of Pakistan''s capital market.

The Chinese, which successfully bought a 40 percent strategic stake in PSX in 2016, is set to invest big time in the days to come in Pakistan bourse.

The PSX was formed in January 2016 when the Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad stock exchanges consolidated into one bourse. PSX was included in the emerging market index of the Morgan Stanley Capital International in June last year.

Pakistan's market reform has been accelerating in recent years and the country has received backing from global institutions and overseas capital, making PSX more appealing to global investors than before.

China's financial market has been opening up and getting increasingly connected to global markets. The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock connect are key to this opening.