• SIVC 720 3.60%
  • BOAB 6 500 1.33%
  • BOABF 7 245 3.50%
  • BOAC 7 000 0.00%
  • BOAM 1 525 1.33%
  • BOAN 5 600 1.82%
  • BOAS 3 300 3.13%
  • BNBC 995 -0.50%
  • BICC 6 980 1.16%
  • SDSC 1 500 -3.22%
  • CFAC 875 0.00%
  • CIEC 1 900 2.98%
  • CBIBF 8 800 2.33%
  • SEMC 815 -1.80%
  • ECOC 7 000 0.00%
  • ETIT 18 0.00%
  • FTSC 1 845 1.37%
  • SVOC 2 395 0.00%
  • NEIC 660 0.00%
  • NTLC 7 740 -0.06%
  • NSBC 5 900 0.00%
  • ONTBF 2 280 -0.43%
  • ORGT 2 735 6.21%
  • ORAC 10 700 0.05%
  • PALC 6 795 6.17%
  • SAFC 1 300 -2.62%
  • SPHC 1 870 -4.10%
  • ABJC 1 295 0.00%
  • STAC 895 0.00%
  • SGBC 15 850 1.34%
  • CABC 1 010 1.00%
  • SICC 3 310 -7.41%
  • STBC 6 095 0.00%
  • SMBC 9 810 -0.80%
  • SIBC 5 300 0.00%
  • SDCC 4 700 -0.94%
  • SOGC 2 745 2.81%
  • SLBC 90 000 0.00%
  • SNTS 17 000 0.00%
  • SCRC 495 3.13%
  • TTLC 1 790 2.29%
  • TTLS 2 545 5.82%
  • PRSC 1 675 -6.94%
  • UNLC 5 000 0.00%
  • UNXC 600 7.14%
  • SHEC 815 1.24%

A share represents an ownership or equity interest in a company. Shares offer their owner the following rights:

  • right to vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders. Each share entitles the holder to one vote
  • the right to share-in profits. Where the accounts allow it, companies distribute to their shareholders a portion of their profits in the form of dividend
  • the right to receive information. Shareholders can at any time access company documents (annual report, resolutions of the general assembly of shareholders, etc.)
  • A bond is a debt instrument. The saver or investor who buys a bond acquires a debt instrument representing a fraction of the loan granted by the issuer (borrower). The borrower may be a Government, a local authority or public/private corporation. In addition to the rembursement of the bond upon maturity, the saver or investor (creditor) is paid a fixed or variable "coupon" interest at regular intervals by the issuer. The reimbursement can also be made in several payments (amortization). When the first payment is made more than 12 months after the bond issue, we talk of a deferred payment period.
  • A zero-coupon bond is a bond that does not strip coupons and is bought at a price below its face value (discount). The bond holder is reimbursed the face value when the bond matures. The return is therefore made up exclusively of the difference between its issue price and its reimbursement price.
  • Pre-emptive right is a right attached to each old share allowing its holder to buy new shares at a fixed price in advance.
  • In case of capital operations to raise money from shareholders and the public, these instruments are aimed at safeguarding the interest of old shareholders whose interest in the company's capital may be reduced by the arrival of new investors.
  • The old shareholder thus has priority subscription right on shares issued to increase capital, which they can also sell over the entire duration of the operation. It is a commercial right making it possible to adjust the issue price to the share's market value. The subscription or allocation right can be listed over the duration of the capital transaction.

Continuous trading offers many opportunities to buy and sell a share in the course of a trading day and allows real-time knowledge of a share's market status by establishing several prices. It offers the opportunity to quickly execute buy or sell orders and to increase the stock market's liquidity. Unlike fixing which fixes the equilibrium price only once a day, continuous trading makes it possible to know in real time the market status of an instrument by fixing several prices during the trading day, thereby offering many opportunities to buy and sell securities.

Organisation of a continuous trading session

Continuous trading comprises 4 phases (pre-opening, continuous trading, pre-closing and trading at the last price), the sequences of which are as follows (in local time, GMT):

9am-9:45am: Pre-opening phase; Taking of orders

During the pre-opening phase, orders entered by licensed stockbrokers (SGI – Société de Gestion et d’Intermédiation) in the regional stock exchange's trading system are registered in the central order book without giving rise to transactions.The central order book, the theoretical-opening price and the volumes likely to be traded at this price are updated each time an order is entered into the system and circulated in real time.

9:45am: Opening auction

When trading opens, the trading system, for each share, compares sell and buy orders in order to match them. Through this auction, it then establishes the opening trading price. At the start of this price determination phase, the central order book is temporarily frozen while the matching algorithm does the matching. At this point, it is no longer possible to enter orders can no longer be entered in the trading system and orders that have already been entered can neither be modified nor cancelled.

If the matching takes place within the authorised dynamic reservation thresholds, an opening price is established and circulated to the marketplace. However, if the matching is outside of the dynamic reservation threshold, the share concerned is reserved for a period, the duration of which is set by Instruction of the regional stock exchange. An opening price is determined after the reservation period if the conditions are fulfilled. The opening price is the last theoretical price before matching. In the absence of the opening auction price, the opening price is the benchmark price. Orders are executed in the central order book in accordance with the priority of execution principle set out by instruction of the regional stock exchange.

9:45am-2pm: Continuous trading

After the opening auction, the continuous trading phase starts and goes on until pre-closing. All orders that have not been executed or orders outstanding after the opening auction are transferred to the continuous trading phase. During this phase, it is possible to register, modify or cancel orders. Each new order registered is immediately matched to available orders in the opposite direction in the central order book so as to check whether or not it can be executed. Orders already in the central order book determine the execution price. Transactions take place as and when counterparties allow. Orders are executed in the central order book in accordance with the priority of execution principle set out by Instruction of the regional stock exchange.

2pm–2:30pm: Pre-closing

The pre-closing phase comes after the continuous trading phase. Orders are automatically registered in the Central Order book without giving rise to transactions. The Central Order Book, the theoretical closing price and the volumes likely to be traded at this price are updated each time an order is entered into the system and circulated in real time.

2:30pm: Closing auction

The closing auction process is identical to the one described for opening auction. The closing price is the price deriving from the closing auction. If no price can be established through the closing auction, the closing price is the price of the last transaction carried out during the continuous trading phase. The closing price is the price of the opening auction or the benchmark price in the absence of transactions during the continuous trading phase. Orders in the central order book are executed in accordance with the priority of execution principle set out by Instruction of the regional stock exchange.

2:30pm–3pm: Trading at the last price

The phase of trading at the last price comes after the closing auction. During this phase, it is possible to only orders in exchange for existing orders for the residual quantity can be entered orders in exchange for existing orders for the residual quantity. Orders are executed only at the closing price.

3pm-3:15pm: Market supervision

3:15pm: Closing of the market

After trading at the last price, the regional stock exchange closes the market and adjusts it, notably in case of cancellation of transactions. Brokerage firms can no longer enter, modify or cancel orders. After the adjustment, trading becomes official. No modification can be made.

Execution priorities after the order accumulation phase

After the order accumulation phase, orders are executed according to the following priority principles:

  1. "Market" and "best limit" orders
  2. Orders with a better limit than the set fixing price
  3. Orders which limit is equal to the fixing price

Within each priority, orders are executed according to their origin then to their time-stamp.

Execution priorities during trading and trading at the last price

Execution of orders during continuous trading and at the last price is done by applying the following priority principles:

  1. Price priority
    Prime priority is given to price. Price priority means that:
    i) on the buy side, limit orders whose limit is strictly higher than the stock market price are executed first, in descending order from the highest limit to the lowest limit; ii) on the sell side, limit orders whose limit is strictly lower than the stock market price are executed first, in increasing order from the lowest limit to the highest limit.
    ii) on the sell side, limit orders whose limit is strictly lower than the stock market price are executed first, in increasing order from the lowest limit to the highest limit. Priority of regular orders over special stipulation orders:
    At the same price, regular orders have priority over orders with a special stipulation: In case of imbalance, orders with a special execution stipulation located on the side of the imbalance may not be executed, whether in part or in full, before all regular orders on the imbalance side have been fully executed.
  2. Priority of origin of the order
    Orders entered into the trading system are identified by origin:
    • order for client account
    • order for non-client account

    Every order must indicate whether it is a client or non-client order. A client order is placed for the account of a securities brokerage firm client, be it a natural or legal person. The non-client order is an order given by a securities brokerage firm on its own behalf, on behalf of one of its staff members or another securities brokerage firm, or a member of staff of the Regional Stock Exchange, the Central Depository /Settlement Bank or Regional Council.

    At the same stock market price, client orders have priority over non-client orders.

  3. Time priority

An order is time-stamped when it is accepted in the order book. It thus receives a stamp stating the date, time of entry, as well as the order number. The operation and the stamp resulting from it are called "Time stamping".

Time stamping priority is determined by the age of the time stamping. An order which time stamp pre-dates that of another order has time stamping priority over the latter order.

THE IMPAXIS GROUP