Agency-only and research broker ITG is now offering its dark pool to Korea.
Buyside traders can now access the same type of crossing network, POSIT, for Korean equities as is available to their American counterparts.
Offering the block trading network in Asia reflects the ongoing buyside demand for anonymous trading of blocks of securities. The POSIT suite, including POSIT Marketplace dark aggregation and the POSIT Alert block crossing platform, are now available for trading Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea as well as 22 EMEA countries, the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
“Korea has been one of the dominant Asia Pacific markets in terms of trading volume in recent years, regularly experiencing the highest average daily turnover of any Asian market except Japan,” said Ofir Gefen, head of electronic brokerage for ITG in Asia Pacific. “The demand is therefore high for POSIT, which has a proven track record in helping institutional traders source block liquidity and minimize market impact.”
ITG reported that average daily volumes in POSIT Marketplace across Asia Pacific (ex-Korea) increased by almost 40% year-over-year in 2013 and the platform delivered average price improvement of 10 basis points in developed markets and 34 bps in emerging markets during that time.
ITG also said in a release its expansion to Korean equities demonstrates the firm’s commitment to the continued global expansion of POSIT Alert, which is a key source of quality block liquidity for institutional investors. The firm plans to continue rolling out POSIT Alert to more international markets throughout 2014 and in the future.
