| By Dara O’Sullivan, Derrick Leonard, and Ilan Solot
There were minimal changes to the status quo as the week commences. Bangladesh has announced revised trading hours on the local exchanges. No change of status in Nigeria and Kenya as they both continue to face limited liquidity. Please see trading comments below. Bangladesh: Effective June 18, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) revised their trading hours until further notice. The new trading hours are 10:00am to 1:00pm Sunday through Thursday. Banks will continue to operate on the reduced hours to facilitate cash clearing and FX activity. The DSE and CSE had been closed since March and have adapted reduced trading hours in response to COVID-19. |
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| Indonesia: Effective June 15, the Central Bank of Indonesia announced they will extend the reduced FX and bond market trading hours until June 30. The revised hours of operations are now 9:00am until 3:00pm, compared previous trading hours from 8:00am until 4:00pm.
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| Pakistan: Effective June 15, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has reduced their trading hours until further notice in line with reduced banking hours. The exchange will now operate 9:45 am to 3:30pm Monday to Thursday and from 9:45am to 1:00pm on Friday. There is no change to the COVID-19 bank operating hours.
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| Sri Lanka: On June 1, local banks extended their COVID-19 trading hours. Banks are now operating on an amended schedule of 8:30am to 3:00pm local time. Previously, banks were operating on a reduced schedule of 8:30am to 1:15pm to facilitate with trading, settlement, cash clearing and FX related activities.
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| Philippines: On May 14, the Philippine government extended the nationwide lockdown. The market continues to operate under reduced hours from 9:00 to 14:00. The cut off for FX activity is set at 2:00 pm.
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| India: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on April 30 an extension of the current lockdown scenario until further notice. All markets will be open from 10:00am to 2:00pm. For any clients actively trading this market, please continue to observe the current reduced temporary trading hours.
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| Nigeria: Liquidity issues continue in the Nigerian market. The CBN remains the single largest provider of USD to Foreign Portfolio Investors and as a result, investors are only seeing rare allocations of liquidity. As a result, only a few repatriation requests are being executed. We continue to monitor the liquidity situation and will provide updates as they are received.
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| Kenya: The market has been experiencing limited USD liquidity and delays in repatriations. The FX market reduced its trading hours on March 30 and now operates from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm until further notice.
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| Mauritius: Local banks continue to experience liquidity issues. The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) reopened on April 6 following a period of closure and the banks continue to support trading, settlement, cash clearing and FX activities.
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| Ghana: The FX market continues to experience limited foreign currency liquidity. Local banks warned about possible delays in repatriations.
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| Morocco: The Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) and the Bank al Maghrib (BAM) shortened their FX and securities deadlines to 2:00 pm until further notice.
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| Chile: The Chilean interbank FX market reduced its operating hours. The FX market will close at 1:00 pm until further notice.
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| Tunisia: The Tunis Stock Exchange (TSE) announced an extension of the COVID-19 trading hours until August 31. On March 18, the Tunis Stock Exchange (TSE) announced reduced trading hours of 8:30am to 12:10pm until further notice. |  |
| Kuwait: On May 31 the Council of Ministers announced they are beginning a relaxation of COVID-19 measures with a reduced curfew. The new curfew is from 6:00pm to 6:00am daily instead of the previous 24-hour lockdown. As a result, trading settlement and foreign exchange (FX) activities are expected to continue as normal. |  |
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Win Thin is a senior currency strategist with over fifteen years of investment experience. He has a broad international background with a special interest in developing markets. Prior to joining BBH in June 2007, he founded Mandalay Advisors, an independent research firm that provided sovereign emerging market analysis to institutional investors. He received an MA from Georgetown University in 1985 and a B.A. from Brandeis University 1983. Feel free to contact the Zurich office of BBH
Tags: Emerging Markets,newsletter
