Jamaica Stock Exchange goes live on Nasdaq platform

Jamaica Observer | The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (Nasdaq) and the Jamaica Stock Exchange earlier this year, signed a 7-year agreement for the Nasdaq to deliver matching engine and market surveillance technology (SMARTS) to the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

By tapping Nasdaq’s technology, the JSE, as part of its strategy will be able to bolster their product and service delivery regionally and globally. Further, via the Nasdaq Matching Engine, JSE will have the ability to offer new products, enhance current trading capabilities and improve the latency of order execution. The market surveillance technology will provide the exchange the ability to closely monitor trade activities while strengthening market integrity.

Nasdaq, which is a stock exchange located in New York’s Times Square, has no physical trading floor, but conducts all of its trades through a computer and telecommunications system.

The exchange is a dealers’ market, meaning brokers buy and sell stocks through a market-maker rather than from each other. It has some 3,300 company listings and is said to currently have greater trading volume than any other US stock exchange, carrying out approximately 1.8 billion trades per day.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness expressed elation at this latest development in the local stock market. He further congratulated the entity on what he dubbed as “a milestone achievement.”

The country’s Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw, in a congratulatory note on his Facebook page, also lauded the company for its continued quest for excellence.

“Congratulations to the JSE on their seamless transition to Nasdaq trading technology,” he said.

This move, he added, will help in elevating the country’s stock market to First World market platforms.

The JSE which was also recently named as the best-performing stock market, has been riding the wave of success and is a poised for greater growth, this as the local financial markets welcomes more and more companies becoming listed.