Cybertrading on KLSE to kick off via Investors Xchange

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 18 (Asia Pulse) - Cybertrading on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange will kick off on January 28 this year with the launch of Investors Xchange (http://www.ix.com.my), an Internet-delivered financial portal that feeds real-time stock quotes and enables subscribers to execute trade online with participating equities and futures brokers.

Aimed at retail investors worldwide, the online service would commence with real-time quotes of three Malaysian exchanges -- KLSE, the Commodities Exchange (COMMEX) and the Kuala Lumpur Options & Futures Financial Exchange (KLOFFE).

Malaysia's first virtual financial exchange is the brainchild of the Virtual Commerce Group, the operator of StockWatch and FISH NET services which it provides to the stock broking community and institutional customers. Khairi Khairi, managing director of Virtual Commerce Group Sdn Bhd, said in a statement "the introduction of Investors Xchange will unify the four pillars of the securities market in Malaysia, as stock exchanges, investors, brokers and regulators become linked under a common technology glue".

For the Malaysian exchanges, the Internet's unlimited geographic access meant Investors Xchange would be actively promoting our exchanges to the world, placing us on par with Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea. "By ushering the age of cybertrading to Malaysia, we expect Investors Xchange to expand trading volume on the KLSE as the worldwide audience of retail investors log on to the service," he said. Turning to the subject of retail investors, Khairi said Investors Xchange allowed them real-time access to the same industrial strength information previously only available to what he described as high net worth investors. This was possible because the latest in Internet technology lowered execution costs.

"We are confident that retail cybertraders will use Investors Xchange because we are a completely independent entity, in which investors would enjoy the convenience of trading with multiple brokers at a time and have access to neutral market information," Khairi said.

This new online service was aided by many value-added features. These included instant drill-downs on individual stock performance, sectoral analysis, charts and live market commentary by licensed analysts. On the effect Investors Xchange would have on brokers, he said participating brokers would see a boost in their business operations because Investors Exchange was committed to heavily promoting its participating brokers.

Khairi said Investors Xchange would create a completely new market of online retail investors for Malaysian exchanges as more and more independent investors migrated to the Internet to gain access to a slew of value-added services and information not available to the man-in-the-street. The take-out for brokers was that they would see increased trading volume and efficiency without having to set up and maintain their own costly in-house Internet-based trading system. Investors Xchange had the effect of giving brokers thousands of extra outlets instantaneously as the computer screen of every retail investor had direct access to execute the buying and selling of stocks, Khairi said.

For the regulators, he said by pioneering Internet-based equity trading in Malaysia, Investors Xchange would act as a catalyst for the regulators to set the rules governing electronic transactions. "As the first step, we will assist the regulators by educating Malaysian investors on how to participate in a meaningful way in the financial industry," he said. Investors Xchange aimed to attract 50,000 subscribers within the next 12 months. The basic services such as KLSE delayed quotes, transaction tool, communication services, educational facilities and point-of-sale avenue to investors and service providers alike would be provided free of charge.