QSE launches new electronic trading platform

Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) launched its new, high-performing trading system, which aims to develop the country’s financial market and achieve investment diversification, in a ceremony held Tuesday at QSE’s headquarters in West Bay.
Speaking at the event, QSE acting CEO Abdulaziz Nasser al-Emadi emphasised that the new trading platform provides innovative, robust, and scalable solutions that align with the advanced financial market technologies utilised by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).
Al-Emadi stressed that these technologies encompass trading services, market data, data analytics, and market surveillance, and operate on a unified framework, sharing the same technological infrastructure, data architecture, and software engineering methodology.
He described this achievement, which is part of QSE’s strategic plan to transform Doha into a leading regional investment hub, as a cornerstone in its development strategy to assume a prominent position among the world’s advanced exchanges, in line with Qatar’s ambitious economic plans.
According to the QSE, the new platform features the deployment of a solution comprising of Millennium Exchange and Millennium Surveillance aimed at enhancing QSE’s overall equity markets infrastructure capabilities.
It offers a range of capabilities, including the provision of services to the derivatives market and facilitating Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). With these added functionalities, QSE is now able to offer a broader range of investment opportunities to its stakeholders.
The new trading platform is a multi-asset, multi-market, trading platform designed for resiliency, high performance, and ultra-low latency, QSE said, adding that these offer out-of-the-box trading solutions for equity, fixed-income, and derivative instruments on a single robust platform that meets standard trading requirements off-the-shelf, leading to reduced time-to-market and lower implementation risk.
It also provides extensive support for a multitude of asset classes including equity, fixed income, and derivatives, as well as supports market maker protection and monitoring combined with a highly deterministic latency profile to support high-frequency quoting.
QSE would be able to meet global best practices and standards, launch new services, and reach unparalleled levels of low latency, high throughput, and resiliency. The new platform uses industry-standard FIX messaging and provides features such as real-time portfolio balance checks, new order types, multiple indices, surveillance alerts and market maker monitoring, as well as integrates with the Edaa and trading participants in the equities capital market.
This achievement represents a significant leap forward in developing the QSE by establishing the foundations to achieve international recognition in accordance with the best practices and global standards.
Al-Emadi also lauded QSE’s partners, saying their collaboration plays a vital role in enhancing market confidence, elevating the performance of available investment services and products, and improving the level of trading surveillance, which helps attract a diverse investor base and provides a trading platform capable of accommodating new investment instruments, including derivatives markets.
He noted that both issuers and investors will benefit from the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of the technologies employed in the new trading platform.
“The Qatar Stock Exchange is working towards enhancing its liquidity by strengthening the maturity and development of our financial markets, thereby supporting Qatar’s strategy to diversify the national economy.
“This includes providing market participants and investors with a wide range of investment opportunities, enabling them to access new and diverse financial instruments to manage risks and capitalize on market movements,” al-Emadi added.
QSE IT director Aisha al-Mahmoud, who is also project manager of the new trading system, noted that aside from being a significant milestone in the development of QSE, the new trading system will enable the introduction of new products and services to a new segment of investors and potential participants in derivatives and equity markets.
John Walker-Robertson, global head of Cross-Asset & Market Infrastructure, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), said: “We are proud to collaborate with the Qatar Stock Exchange to successfully implement our state-of-the-art and innovative trading infrastructure. The new infrastructure leverages industry-standard FIX messaging and offers a wide range of features aligned to global best practices and standards.”
In her speech at the event, LSEG project director Vidumini Ranasinghe said: “Built on the same technology used by many global capital markets, the new, high-performing trading platform launching today will be a key capability to develop the Qatari financial market.
“This enhanced platform will bring greater efficiency. But it will also bring a greater range of scalable, innovative products and services to customers, investors and potential participants in the derivatives and equity markets. This new capability will be a crucial element of Doha’s transformation into a leading investment hub in the region.”
QSE concluded Tuesday’s ceremony by honouring all technology service companies, data vendors, and brokerage firms that contributed to the project, thus recognising their valuable efforts and fruitful collaboration in launching the new trading system.
It is worth mentioning that LSEG’s technologies are utilised by more than 25 exchanges and financial markets worldwide, including Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Singapore Exchange, and London Stock Exchange.