ASIC LIfts Ban on Short Selling Securities
Australian Securities and Investments Commission said today it will lift its ban on covered short selling of financial stocks.
"ASIC has reviewed market conditions and considers that the balance between market efficiency and potential systemic concern has now moved in favor of the ban being lifted," the regulator said in a statement.
Margin Changes
After reviewing our current CFD margin requirements, we are pleased to advise that First Prudential Markets will be reducing the margin rate on a number of CFDs as of Thursday 9th April, 2009. FPM’s Direct Market Access CFD margin rates start from just 3%.
Please review the table below to assess any impact the new rates will have on your account.
| Security | Description | Previous Margin | New Margin |
| ANN | Ansell Limited | 15 | 10 |
| BEN | Bendigo and Adelaide | 15 | 10 |
| BOQ | Bank of Queensland. | 15 | 10 |
| COH | Cochlear Limited | 15 | 10 |
| CPU | Computershare Ltd | 15 | 10 |
| CRG | Crane Group Limited | 15 | 10 |
| CSL | CSL Limited | 15 | 10 |
| CTX | Caltex Australia | 15 | 10 |
| CXP | Corporate Express | 15 | 10 |
| DJS | David Jones Limited | 15 | 10 |
| DOW | Downer EDI Limited | 15 | 10 |
| ERA | Energy Resources | 15 | 10 |
| FLT | Flight Centre | 15 | 10 |
| GFF | Goodman Fielder. | 15 | 10 |
| GPT | GPT Group | 15 | 10 |
| HVN | Harvey Norman | 15 | 10 |
| IFL | IOOF Holdings Ltd | 15 | 10 |
| IRE | IRESS Market Tech. | 15 | 10 |
| LEI | Leighton Holdings | 15 | 10 |
| MTS | Metcash Limited | 15 | 10 |
| NCM | Newcrest Mining | 15 | 10 |
| NUF | Nufarm Limited | 15 | 10 |
| NWS | News Corp | 15 | 10 |
| ORG | Origin Energy | 15 | 10 |
| OSH | Oil Search Ltd | 15 | 10 |
| OST | OneSteel Limited | 15 | 10 |
| PPT | Perpetual Limited | 15 | 10 |
| SEV | Seven Network | 15 | 10 |
| TAL | Tower Australia | 15 | 10 |
| TOL | Toll Holdings Ltd | 15 | 10 |
| TTS | Tatts Group Ltd | 15 | 10 |
| WAN | West Australian News | 15 | 10 |
| WOR | WorleyParsons Ltd | 15 | 10 |
| DXS | Dexus Property Group | 10 | 15 |
| GCL | Gloucester Coal | 25 | 15 |
| LGL | Lihir Gold Limited | 25 | 15 |
| PDN | Paladin Energy Ltd | 17 | 15 |
| RMD | ResMed Inc. | 25 | 15 |
| TSE | Transfield Services | 25 | 15 |
| WTF | Wotif.com Holdings | 25 | 15 |
| HGG | Henderson Group | 10 | 20 |
| EQN | Equinox Minerals Ltd | 35 | 25 |
| FKP | FKP Property Group | 15 | 25 |
| AUN | Austar United | 15 | 30 |
| ENE | Energy Developments | 15 | 30 |
| HST | Hastie Group Limited | 25 | 30 |
| CXC | Coeur D'Alene Mines. | 17 | 35 |
| GTP | Great Southern Ltd | 15 | 35 |
| LST | Lion Selection | 25 | 35 |
| TAP | Tap Oil Limited | 15 | 35 |
| TWR | Tower Limited | 15 | 35 |
| AGS | Alliance Resources | 25 | 45 |
| CMR | Compass Resources | 18 | 45 |
| AIO | Asciano Group | 100 | 50 |
| OGC | Oceanagold Corp. | 25 | 50 |
| PPX | PaperlinX Limited | 15 | 50 |
| TSO | Tishman Speyer | 15 | 50 |
| AMU | Amadeus Energy | 25 | 65 |
Expanded Short Sellable CFDs List - Over 110 available
First Prudential Markets have expanded our list of shortable CFDs to over 110. If there are additional CFDs you wish to trade please contact the dealing desk on 1300 376 233 to request and we will endeavour to meet you request.
View current list of Shortable CFDs - May 2009
ASIC Short Selling Ban Extended on Financial Securities
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today said it would keep the ban on covered short selling of financial securities in place until 31 May 2009 but will keep this position under review.
Please note, covered short selling of non-financial securities remains unaffected and will still be permitted.
Trading Obligations - Market Manipulation
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) places obligations on Market Participants to ensure that each order it receives and places into the market does not have a manipulative effect on the integrity of the market, or is likely to leave the market misinformed. ASX is the regulator which monitors orders entered into the market by all market participants on a day to day basis. In addition to the ASX, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission also monitors market activity to ensure that manipulative trading is identified and investigated.
FPM Clients need to understand that certain practices in placing order can constitute market manipulation, or lead the market to perceive that the orders may have been placed for that purpose.
Non-acceptable trading practices:
- Insider Trading - Placing orders to buy or sell a security, where you hold or have become aware of price sensitive information relating to that security that is not generally available, and which would be likely to materially affect the price of the security involved, were it is made available.
- Order Stacking or Layering of bids – placing buy orders at various price steps below the market to create a false appearance of buying demand.
- Entering large or undisclosed orders on the opposite side of the market to that in which a genuine order is to be executed.
- Marking the close, involves buying or selling a stock near the close of the day’s trading, with the objective of affecting the closing price by either increasing, decreasing or maintaining the same price. This might be done to avoid margin calls. A common indicator is trading in small parcels of the security just before the market closes.
- Wash trades - Placing orders where the same party is buyer and seller of the same security – execution of such orders will raise the question of whether the transactions involves a change of beneficial ownership, and whether the trades are intended to artificially inflate turnover, and /or increase the price of a security.
- Matched Orders - Placing an order to sell or buy securities where you know that an associate has made or intends to make a corresponding offer to buy or sell the same securities on substantially the same terms.
- Being both the buyer and seller on the one transaction (placing a buy or sell order for an account with a broker other than FPM, and placing a corresponding sell or buy order for the same account through FPM
- Placing orders that are un-commercial (eg small value, brokerage may be higher than the trade value)
- Placing order, then cancelling them within a few minutes of entry without apparent reason at any time, but especially prior to:
- the market open,
- just after the market open, or
- In the period before or during ASX’s daily closing Single Price Auction).
Market Phases / Trading hours (EDST)
7am - 10am | Pre-opening |
10am | Opening |
10am - 4pm | Normal Trading |
4pm - 4:10pm | Pre-open prior to Closing |
4:10pm | Closing Single Price Auction |
4:11pm - 5pm | After Hours Adjust |
5pm - 7am | Enquiry |
Pre-Opening Phase
Pre-opening takes place from 7:00 am to 10:00 am, Sydney time. During Pre-opening:
- Brokers enter orders in preparation for the market opening.
- SEATS does not trade orders.
- Investors may enter orders on-line. The orders are queued according to price-time priority and will not trade until the market opens.
Overnight and overseas trades may be reported until 9:45 am, Sydney time. These trades must take place according to ASX Market Rules.
Opening Phase
- Brokers may 'tidy up' their orders by canceling unwanted orders, amending orders, etc.
- New orders cannot be entered and SEATS does not execute trades.
- Brokers wishing to trade contact each other by telephone. ASX Market Rules ensure that trading takes place in an orderly fashion.
Opening takes place at 10:00 am Sydney time and lasts for about 10 minutes. SEATS calculates opening prices during this phase. Securities open in five groups, according to the starting letter of their ASX code:
Group 1 10:00:00 am A-B, e.g. ANZ, BHP
Group 2 10:02:15 am C-F, e.g. CPU, DVT, ECP, FXJ
Group 3 10:04:30 am G-M, e.g. GHP, KYC, LIB
Group 4 10:06:45 am N-R, e.g. QAN
Group 5 10:09:00 am S-Z, e.g. TLS
The time is randomly generated by SEATS and occurs up to 15 seconds on either side of the times given above, e.g. group 1 may open at any time between 9:59:45 am and 10:00:15 am.
Normal Trading
Normal Trading takes place from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Sydney time. Brokers enter orders into SEATS and SEATS matches the orders against each other, resulting in trades.
The vast majority of trades take place during Normal Trading.
Pre-opening prior to Closing
Between 4:00 pm and 4:10 pm, Sydney time, the market is placed in Pre-open. Trading stops and brokers enter, change and cancel orders in preparation for the market closing.
Closing Single Price Auction
The Closing Single Price Auction takes place between 4:10 pm and 4:11 pm, Sydney time.
SEATS calculates closing prices during this phase.
After Hours Adjust Phase
After Hours Adjust takes place from 4.11 pm to 5:00 pm, Sydney time. During this phase:
Brokers may 'tidy up' their orders by canceling unwanted orders, amending orders, etc.
New orders cannot be entered and SEATS does not execute trades.
Brokers wishing to trade contact each other by telephone. ASX Market Rules ensure that trading takes place in an orderly fashion.