After 2 years of upgrades, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) is now fully powered by a U.S. exchange’s trading engine and technology.
ADX has gone live with NasdaqOMX’s X-stream Trading technology. The upgrade to the Nasdaq system, started in 2012, provides ADX with a widely deployed, internationally compliant, multi-asset trading platform. According to the exchanges, this allows ADX to now trade new asset classes, support its market expansion and maintain a leading position in the exchange industry in the Middle East region.
The agreement also extends the existing management contract with NASDAQ OMX for a further five years.
“Making X-stream Trading available for our investors, brokers and other stakeholders takes us to a completely new operational level and prepares the way for the next stage of our development,” said Rashed Al Baloushi, chief executive of ADX.
The new trading platform will improve ADX’s trading performance and transparency, and ensure low latency pre-trade risk management checks, according to a release, and allow faster back office reconciliation of transactions and give ADX the ability to handle an unlimited number of indices. In addition, ADX will continue to leverage the existing suite of market surveillance and central security depository technologies provided and supported by NASDAQ OMX since 2000, when ADX was formed.
ADX was established by Local Law No. (3) Of the year 2000, the provisions of which make the Exchange a legal entity with autonomous status, independent finance and management. The law also provides the ADX with the necessary supervisory and executive powers to exercise its functions.
ADX has 67 listed securities. Those securities include 65 public joint stock companies, 1 Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and 1 convertible bond. The ADX had a total market capitalization of AED 449 billion (US$122 billion) as at the end of 2013. ADX has signed a number of agreements with major financial institutions to provide custody services, including the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, and Citi.
