The London Stock Exchange moved its main trading platform to a faster system, putting past technology glitches behind it just days after launching a bid to buy Canadian exchange TMX. The British exchange has moved its main UK share system to technology provided by Millennium, a Sri Lankan company it bought in 2009, making it faster and more attractive to the rapidly growing business of ultra-fast hedge fund trading.
The migration on Monday is a boost for the exchange after it announced talks with Toronto-based TMX on February 8. It postponed the technology upgrade in November, when a trading glitch prompted the LSE to probe what went wrong amid speculation of sabotage.
Ultra-fast and secure trading systems are crucial tools as stock exchanges try to attract high-frequency trading (HFT) clients, hedge funds that make profits by dipping in and out of the market in fractions of a second. The LSE's talks with TMX were overshadowed when Deutsche Boerse announced last week it was in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext, in a deal that would create the world's largest exchange group. The London stock market has been keen to upgrade its systems to compete with the new breed of tech-savvy rivals, such as Chi-X Europe and Bats Europe, which have taken market share by courting the HFTs who like their speed.