Eurex, Korea Exchange to add Weekly Options on KOSPI 200 to their link
Starting 28 March, Eurex and Korea Exchange will add Weekly Options on the Korean benchmark index KOSPI 200 to their link.
The ability to trade this contract outside of Korean trading hours gives investors greater flexibility and precision to customize short-term risk exposures in the Korean market. Average daily turnover at KRX in weekly expiries on the KOSPI 200 Options stood at over 1 million contracts in February. This shows the high demand for weekly expiries.
Michael Peters, CEO of Eurex, comments:
“We are proud to enable investors, whether in Asia, the U.S. or Europe, to manage their investments in this highly important market – not only around the clock, but now also on very short-term exposure. South Korea is one of the ten largest economies in the world and the KOSPI 200 Options are among the three most heavily exchange traded index contracts globally.”
Sohn Byungdoo, Chairman and CEO of KRX, adds:
“Since the volatility of financial markets is increasing with a complex international situation and rapidly changing global market, I am very pleased to say that KOSPI 200 Weekly Options, which can provide opportunity of risk management for investors, to be timely listed on the KRX-Eurex link. We look forward to strengthening the KRX-Eurex link by successfully settling down KOSPI 200 Weekly Options on the market and hope to expand the partnership with Eurex.”
The launch of the Weekly KOSPI Options is the latest step in the expansion of the partner exchanges’ link which began in August 2010. The new Weekly Options complement the regular KOSPI 200 Options, of which over over 287 million contracts have been traded on the link since 2010.
Further products tradable on the link are KOSPI 200 Futures, Mini-KOSPI 200 Futures, and the recently launched USD/KRW Futures. To allow access for U.S. investors, American supervisory authority CFTC granted approval for KOSPI 200 Futures and Mini-KOSPI 200 Futures. Investors domiciled in the U.S. have been able to trade both contracts at Eurex since 7 February.