Tokyo: The Tokyo Stock Exchange debuted an upgraded trading system on Sunday, four years after a series of computer woes dented investor confidence in the world's second-largest equities market.
Arrowhead, the new trading system, slashes to five milliseconds the time needed to process orders, from two to three seconds previously, while enabling the exchange to adapt quickly to smaller order volumes or sudden increases in the number of transactions, the bourse said on its website.
The upgrade may help restore the reputation of an exchange last month ordered to pay 10.7 billion yen (Dh422 million) in damages to Mizuho Securities Co over its failure in December 2005 to cancel a faulty sell order.
Six weeks earlier, system problems had shut down trading for more than four hours, while further glitches emerged during the following half year.
Processing time will fall to the level of the larger New York Stock Exchange, still behind the London Stock Exchange's three milliseconds. London plans an upgrade next year to shorten its processing time to less than one millisecond.
New listings on the Tokyo exchange may rise to as many as 100 this year as Japan's economy recovers and more technology companies seek capital, Atsushi Saito, president of the bourse, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on December 28.
After shrinking for four consecutive quarters, Japan's economy emerged from recession in the three-month period ended June 30, overcoming the financial crisis earlier than the US and Europe.
"We can expect between 50 and 100" new listings, Saito said. "We will see more emerging new companies with very unique technology, so they will naturally look for capital."
There were 10 initial public offerings on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2009, according to data from T&C Financial Research, while 19 companies listed on exchanges across Japan during the year.
Japan's Topix, the index that tracks shares traded on the TSE's first section, ended a two-year plunge in 2009 with a 5.6 per cent gain to 907.59. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 19 per cent for the year to 10,546.44
