PEOPLE’S DAILY: THE SHFE SILVER FUTURES VOLUME RANKS NO. 1 GLOBALLY

Updated on Jul 02,2014

July 2, 2014

By Xie Weiqun

Since the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) launched the Continuous Trading Program, or the Night Trading Session, one year ago, the market scale of the relevant products in the Continuous Trading Program has been enlarged significantly, and their international influence has been strengthened. Up to June 30, the Continuous Trading Program has seen the transaction of 382 million contracts, which takes up 28.01% of the total volumes in the same period.

Ever since the launch of the Continuous Trading Program and with the extension of the trading hours, the price continuity of relevant products has been improved and the positions of investors have been remarkably increased. Up to June 30, the open interests of gold futures in the SHFE have increased to 205,600 contracts, a year-on-year increase of 67.35%; the open interests of silver have increased to 521,900 contracts, a year-on-year increase of 84.68%; the open interests of aluminum have increased to 348,900 contracts, a year-to-year increase of 61.12%.

After the implementation of the Continuous Trading Program, the international influence of the SHFE has been greatly enhanced. The market share of precious metals of the SHFE has ranked among the top globally. Since the launch of the Continuous Trading Program, the market share of the SHFE in the global market of precious metals has been increased notably. The ratio of the transaction volume of gold futures in the SHFE to that in the COMEX jumped from 0.08 before the launch of the Continuous Trading Program to 0.23 after the launch, which translated into a rise of 2.9 times. The ratio of the transaction volume of silver futures in the SHFE to that in the COMEX jumped from 0.28 to 2.3, a rise of 8.2 times. Since the launch of the Continuous Trading Program, the transaction volume of silver futures in the SHFE has ranked first globally, that of gold futures has come in the second place internationally and the first place in the Asian-Pacific region. Chinese prices of the futures market of precious metals have been formed gradually.