Sept. 18 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) scheme to unify six Asian exchanges into one single trading bourse is steadily taking shape for its launch in 2010.
This week, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange announced that it would join the ASEAN Bulletin Board that allows each participating country to list 30 stocks. It now joins the Philippine Stock Exchange, Bursa Malaysia, the Indonesia Stock Exchange, the Singapore Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
The bulletin board will have a total market capitalization of more than US$1,000 billion and will initially be implement with Bursa Malaysia and the Stock Exchange of Thailand followed by the Singapore Exchange and the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The ASEAN bourse should increase the profile of each member country’s exchange in the region by allowing investors to easily trade ASEAN-listed securities via their local brokers.
“We should not be contented with staying local. By partnering with our peer exchanges in the ASEAN region, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is moving beyond its shores to draw strength from the successes of other markets,” PSE president and chief executive officer Francis Lim told The Inquirer.
