Saturday, October 21, 2023
Stock exchange explores international index trading with TT$
■ Joel Julien
joel.julien@trinidadexpress.comTHE Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange is exploring the possibility of enabling the trading of an international index, like the S& P 500 or Nasdaq, on the local exchange in Trinidad and Tobago dollars.
Chairman of the T& T Stock Exchange Ian Narine announed this yesterday as he delivered opening remarks at the 2023 Capital Markets Conference.
Last year at the conference, all the heads of the regional stock exchanges cut a ribbon on stage to launch a Caribbean Stock Market Index.
'And I suggest to you, it was a major milestone in bringing our markets together and making the understanding of the performance of our markets more accessible to investors,' Narine said.
'We are now approaching 12 months of data since the launch of that index, so you will be hearing more about this initiative in the weeks and months to come,' he said.
Narine said while it is often believed that a developed nation is one where the rich take easily accessible and
convenient public transportation to work, he wanted to offer another take on that.
'Let me suggest that a developed nation is one where the majority of its citizens understand and participate in the capital markets in order to be able to create wealth for themselves,' he said.
Narine said the T& T Stock Exchange has been looking to see 'how we can trade the index' especially when there is currently no opportunity for an investor to conveniently participate in the whole market.
'As we explored the idea of the index, we realised that the best way to do so was through a process called tokenisation,' Narine said, adding: '...(but) our research concluded that even though this was cutting-edge around the world, our market and our existing regulatory framework would not be comfortable with this step. We had to figure out an intermediate step.'
Hence the project to be able to trade in the performance of an international index on the T& T Exchange in TT dollars.
Narine said the project details are still being worked out, but the market development would involve collaboration.
He said: 'If we are successful,... the aim...is eventually to be able to trade in local and regional indices as well.
'This gives local investors access to the market in a way that they never had before,' he said.
Narine said individual investors face the challenge of limited access to foreign exchange for investing.
'This is the national problem that we are attempting to solve. Our project is ongoing. The ultimate beneficiary is the public of Trinidad and Tobago, who would be able to invest in the performance of the US-and maybe even other international marketsin TT dollars, through their local stockbroker,' he said.
'If we are successful, that changes the game. It changes the local investing landscape. There is, however, still a lot of work to be done,' he said.
'We at the Stock Exchange are committed to help Trinidad and Tobago come onto the curve and eventually get ahead of the curve. We must become aware, start to keep up, master, and then get ahead of industry trends,' Narine said.
'MAJOR MILESTONE': Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning, left, and T& T Stock Exchange (TTSE) chairman Ian Narine applaud while chief executive officer of the TTSE Eva Mitchell rings the bell at the 2023 Capital Markets Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain yesterday.
Copyright (c) 2023 Trinidad Express, Edition 10/21/2023
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