Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing is about to become the newest member of a once unthinkable club: stock exchanges without a trading floor.
HKEX will shut its iconic Trading Hall on Friday, 31 years after opening the space in the heart of the city’s financial district. While it survived longer than counterparts in Singapore and Tokyo, Hong Kong’s floor had become increasingly irrelevant amid the rise of electronic trading. The last time HKEX bothered to publish figures in 2014, floor transactions comprised just 0.2 per cent of total turnover.
The closing has been met with a mix of resignation and nostalgia by local traders, some of whom spent the bulk of their working lives in the space, shouting orders through the 1987 crash, the dot-com bubble, the Sars outbreak and countless other booms and busts. As the digital revolution pushed more and more trades from humans to computers, the floor got quieter and quieter: daily attendance dwindled to about 30 recently from 600 in 2000.
“I’m going to miss the Trading Hall a lot,” said Catherina Lai, a director of the securities unit at Mason Group. She’s been working in the brokerage industry since 1985 and was one of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s first floor traders. “I sat near the hallway, so a lot of people came over and asked me about the market.”
Floor trading first began in Hong Kong in 1891, while the current hall – located at Exchange Square – has been open since 1986 when four bourses combined to form the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The property belongs to the Hong Kong government, which collects rent from HKEX, at HK$3.58 million (Dh1.6m) per year, unchanged since 2008.
The vast floor area covers 45,000 square feet, and there are 906 two-person booths, which at their peak were daily homes to some 1,400 traders in the 1980s.
Herding all the city’s brokers under one roof helped bring a sense of order to what had been a chaotic market, said Christopher Cheung, the chairman of Christfund Securities and a former member of Hong Kong’s Far East Stock Exchange. Before the merger, shares would sometimes trade at different prices from one venue to the next, he said.
“When there were four exchanges, everyone was trading separately and didn’t know what other people were doing,” said Mr Cheung, who is also a policymaker representing brokerages. “With the integrated trading floor, the vibe made people more actively participate.”
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A year after its opening, the floor played host to one of Hong Kong’s biggest market collapses. The rout began with an 11 per cent drop in the benchmark Hang Seng Index on October 19, 1987 - later known as Black Monday - and accelerated the following week despite the exchange’s decision to shut for four days. It took almost four years for the gauge to reclaim its pre-crash high.
“It was the darkest day in the Trading Hall,” Ms Lai said. “Once the market reopened, everyone was selling. Nobody knew when the market would go back to normal.”
The floor’s steady decline into irrelevance began in 1996, when the first off-site order was sent.
Technological improvements did more than just change brokers’ physical locations; they also automated some of the most tedious aspects of the job. Before trading went paperless, Ms Lai said she used to spend hours on menial work, like gluing pre-paid stamps (for the city’s stamp duty) on share transfer forms.
While trading floors are increasingly rare these days, some markets have resisted the temptation to go completely electronic. The New York Stock Exchange still has its floor at 11 Wall Street, where the opening bell is a fixture of business television every weekday morning. BOX Options Exchange, which is about 40 per cent owned by Toronto-based TMX Group, won approval in August to open a trading floor in Chicago. BOX says face-to-face dealing helps derivatives traders get a better view of pricing and liquidity.
In Hong Kong, the shift away from humans may accelerate. HKEX is considering asking the government to remove or reduce the city’s stamp duty on stock transactions, according to a person familiar with the bourse’s thinking, a move that could attract more algorithmic and high-frequency traders.
As for the old trading floor, HKEX plans to use the space to bring the city’s financial community together. After a renovation, it will host conferences, exhibitions and ceremonies, according to an exchange spokesman. There may also be a small history section for visitors to see how the floor looked in its glory days.
“Some people say Hong Kong’s big time is behind us, but it isn’t,” HKEX’s chief executive Charles Li said at an event to mark the closing.
“It may have ended for this place as a trading hall, but a new big time, a much bigger one, has just started.”
Paris Can Wait
Dir: Eleanor Coppola
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard
Two stars
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
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The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 268hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy: 6.7L / 100km (estimate)
Essentials
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Malaysia Airlines all fly direct from the UAE to Kuala Lumpur and on to Penang from about Dh2,300 return, including taxes.
Where to stay
In Kuala Lumpur, Element is a recently opened, futuristic hotel high up in a Norman Foster-designed skyscraper. Rooms cost from Dh400 per night, including taxes. Hotel Stripes, also in KL, is a great value design hotel, with an infinity rooftop pool. Rooms cost from Dh310, including taxes.
In Penang, Ren i Tang is a boutique b&b in what was once an ancient Chinese Medicine Hall in the centre of Little India. Rooms cost from Dh220, including taxes.
23 Love Lane in Penang is a luxury boutique heritage hotel in a converted mansion, with private tropical gardens. Rooms cost from Dh400, including taxes.
In Langkawi, Temple Tree is a unique architectural villa hotel consisting of antique houses from all across Malaysia. Rooms cost from Dh350, including taxes.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
Results
Stage 5:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Jumbo-Visma 04:19:08
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:03
3. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers
4. Sergio Higuita (COL) EF Education-Nippo 00:00:05
5. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:06
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 17:09:26
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers 00:00:45
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:01:12
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Team Jumbo-Visma 00:01:54
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo 00:01:56
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Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
Company%20Profile
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Company%20Profile
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