Tokyo Stock Exchange Eyes Longer Trading Hours, Nikkei Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Tokyo Stock Exchange is considering expanding trading hours for cash equities in a move designed to attract retail investors and foreign traders, the Nikkei newspaper reported, without citing anyone.

The bourse, which currently ends trading at 3 p.m. Tokyo time, is considering expanding hours into the afternoon or evening in a change that could be in time for a system renewal in 2024, the report said. An advisory body plans to meet as early as this week and solicit opinions from brokerages and institutional investors, according to the Nikkei.

If realized, the move would be the first significant change in trading hours in Tokyo in over a decade. In 2011, the exchange shortened its lunch break by 30 minutes to the current one hour. The Tokyo exchange now trades between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time, with the break between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., making the five-hour trading day considerably shorter than many other regional rivals. The bourse is also considering canceling the fixed lunch break, the Nikkei said.

A spokesman for Japan Exchange Group Inc., which operates the TSE, said it wasn’t the source of the report.

“Compared to overseas markets, trading hours for Japanese stocks is limited,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co. An extension “will make it easier to draw in foreign investors. It will also make it an easier environment for domestic investors, including retail investors, to trade.”

The move is likely to face local opposition, however. A similar recommendation in 2014 for the exchange to consider an evening session failed to pass, with plans dropped following opposition from traditional brokerages who said longer hours would increase costs. Some members of an advisory panel at the time also called for a separate afternoon session.

“If really implemented, this would require a lot of adjustments from both front-end to back,” Takeo Kamai, head of execution services at CLSA Securities Japan Co., said. “We’ll really need to see how much support this idea will get from the street.”

With most companies reporting earnings after the close of market, trading is often done on exchanges overseas, or on proprietary trading systems (PTS) run by securities firm, such as the SBI Holdings Inc.-backed Japannext Co.

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There has been renewed interest in such alternative venues since the TSE’s unprecedented outage last October, which highlighted how centralizing trading in Japan is. In March, Cboe Global Markets Inc. agreed to acquire Chi-X Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd. to expand its reach into Japan and other markets. A growth in rival venues could be a threat to the Tokyo exchange, though recently appointed CEO Hiromi Yamaji has said he welcomed the competition.

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