China’s Guangzhou Futures Exchange is exploring launching night trading, primarily for platinum and palladium contracts, in response to trader feedback, according to people familiar with the matter.
The bourse, known as the GFEX, is studying the feasibility of night sessions to capture international dynamics that are often felt overnight, said the people, who asked not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly. The considerations are at the preliminary research stage and no decisions have been made, they said.
A spokesperson from the exchange didn’t respond to requests for comments.
The GFEX currently does not offer night trading for any of its listed products, which include silicon, lithium carbonate, platinum, and palladium. This contrasts with China’s more-established commodity exchanges in Shanghai, Dalian and Zhengzhou, where futures in multiple commodities trade in active night sessions that start around 9 p.m. local time.
Trading liquidity on the GFEX has picked up in recent years, particularly since it debuted China’s first lithium carbonate futures in 2023. The bourse launched platinum and palladium futures in November, which have also attracted strong interest.
The volume of platinum futures traded on the GFEX in the first four months of the year equated to around one third of those on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the world’s dominant futures market for the white metal.
However, extreme price swings have been common, prompting GFEX to regularly step in to cap new positions or raise trading fees to rein in volatility.
(By Annie Lee and Yihui Xie)
