Date：May 28, 2015
Source:Futures Daily

Zhengzhou Commodities Exchange (ZCE) announced to start after-hours trading of rapeseed oil, glass and thermal coal futures on June 11, to better meet the needs of investors and relevant industries.
There are currently 25 futures contracts traded after hours in China, including the majority of the most actively traded ones. Statistically, among the total number of investors on ZCE, 84.3% of them are after-hours investors and 73.6% of them are after-hours corporate traders; the daily trading volume of after-hours session are 3,679,000 contracts, accounting for 36.9% of the total trading volume.
“We have seen significant interest of ZCE’s after-hours trading from the participants, especially corporate investors. It means there is a strong need for after-hours trading of contracts of which trading activities in domestic and overseas markets are correlated and that the market has adapted to the changes in the transaction and trading of spot and futures with overlapped domestic and overseas trading hours,” said a professional. ZCE’s after-hours trading last from 9:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., in line with spot companies’ domestic and overseas trading needs. As the after-hours trading increases the relevance between domestic and overseas trading for contracts such as methanol and PTA, companies have become accustomed to trading futures and spot simultaneous at night. For futures companies, the operational cost of after-hour trading is relatively consistent. “We’d like to see more actively traded futures contracts to be traded after hours, because it diversifies investors’ activities and facilitates arbitrage for industrial clients,” said the professional.
Rapeseed oil, glass and thermal coal are correlated respectively to oil, building materials and coal markets home and abroad. According to an official of ZCE, the after-hours trading improves the after-hours arbitrage of the three contracts, and mitigates the exposure of cross-product open positions resulting from asynchronous trading hours. Looking forward, ZCE will continue to foster the market and promote classic cases, so as to enrich after-hours trading offerings, helping spot companies further improve their production and operation.