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French bourse joins drive for longer hours

PARIS: The French Stock Exchange on Thursday joined its Italian and German counterparts in a push to extend trading hours, as part of a move by traditional bourses to face up to growing competition from online trading systems.

The Paris Bourse said it would extend its opening hours by 30 minutes from April 3, taking the final fixing to 1635 GMT.

It said in a statement that the session could be further extended into the evening in coming months, depending on market needs.

"This extension follows the decision taken in September by eight European bourses to harmonise their opening hours from 0900 to 1730 (local)," the bourse said.

Paris market sources said the French bourse could push back trading hours to 1900 GMT by the end of 2000 and to 2100 GMT in 2000, as a defensive move against the threat posed by the new online trading systems.

This echoed comments made by ParisBourse chairman Jean-Francois Theodore that the bourse's ultimate goal was to stay open until 1900 GMT or 2100 GMT.

London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid and Zurich are part of the European-wide bourse alliance and are currently taking similar measures to face up to competition among exchanges and from electronics rivals.

Milan said last month it wanted to extend its trading hours to 1930 GMT from March and to 2100 GMT from May. The move was seen as responding to Tix, a new electronic communications network (ECN) launched by the UniCredito bank to trade shares until 2100 GMT.

Germany is also on the move. The Munich exchange said regional German bourses were set to extend trading by 2-1/2 hours to close at 1900 GMT, with a further extension to 2100 GMT to coincide with Wall Street close.

Frankfurt has yet to decide whether to extend hours, but German press reports say it may extend its closing time to 1900 GMt from 1630 GMT in March.

Stockholm is also mulling longer hours. Only the London Stock Exchange has said it had no plans to extend its session.

Operators throughout French trading rooms greeted the news with dismay.

"It really is a pain. We are not slaves. There will be organisational problems, stress problems, family problems," one trader said.

Traders had been hoping for a longer extension, to 1900 GMT or 2100 GMT, which would allow for organisational changes such as shift work and new jobs.

Extending trading hours by 30 minutes just meant a longer workday, they said.

Some also said the longer hours had not been taken into account during negotiations for a shorter 35-hour workweek in France and that this meant further organisational headaches.

France's Socialist-led government recently introduced a law cutting the working week to 35 hours from 39.

From April 3, all stocks quoted on the French market will trade between 0800 GMT and 1630 GMT, with a final closing fix at 1635 GMT.

On the Nouveau Marche for small, high growth stocks, the first fixing will take place at 0830 GMT instead of 0930 GMT, and the final fixing at 1600 GMT instead of 1530 GMT.-Reuters