Johannesburg Stock Exchange to migrate to new trading platform

Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has entered into a licensing agreement with technology solutions provider MillenniumIT to move its equity market trading activity onto Millennium Exchange.

The migration is planned for the first half of 2012 and it is expected that JSE members will benefit from executing transactions almost 400 times faster than the present trading solution.

The agreement will also see the JSE's trading system relocated from London to Johannesburg.

The move will mean that the JSE will manage and operate the trading engine itself.

The move is expected to offer significant benefits for the JSE itself and opens up a new potential revenue stream for the exchange by offering JSE members co-location services.

JSE chief operating officer and head of the Equity Market Leanne Parsons said that the adoption of the new trading system will increase the equity volumes traded on the JSE and therefore liquidity.

"In our experience, whenever we take a step forward with our trading technology, trading volumes also follow. If we want to remain a world-class and relevant exchange in a highly competitive industry, we must remain abreast of technological advances," Parsons said.

MillenniumIT, which has over a decade of experience in building technology solutions for the capital markets, is headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group.