[2008-09-17]  Floor Trading Gives Way to Full Automation in October
Complete electronic trading of all shares on the Botswana Stock Exchange is close to fruition following the addition of five more companies on the new Central Securities Depository (CSD) system.

The BSE has announced that as from October 6, Barclays, Imara, Olympia, Furnmart and Sefalana Cash and Carry will be added to the CSD system as the bourse switches from floor trading to automated trading of shares, bringing the total number of counters on the new system to 13.


Apart from MRIB which de-listed from the bourse last week, there are eight companies whose shares can be traded electronically - Standard Chartered Bank, G4S, RPC Data, ABCH, BIHL, FNBB, Sefalana and Turnstar.

There are 30 counters listed on the BSE, 19 of them on the main board. "Investors are, therefore, advised to open CSD accounts if they wish to purchase and sell shares in the said companies through any of the existing stockbrokers who are members of the BSE," the BSE said in an announcement.

The new system, which went live in May, is entirely electronic, and holds securities, transfers them, ensures their safekeeping and maintains an updated record of shares held by clients, all in paperless format.

The CSD was formed under the auspices of the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) Act. The automated system was acquired by Government at a cost of P5 million in a bid to develop the country's financial markets and increase liquidity and efficiency on the bourse.

The objective of the CSD is to establish a central share register and keep an up-to-date list of shareholders and the share trades transacted. Among other new functions, the system will process share certificates, conduct deposits and withdrawals, transfer securities between accounts and record trades. It will also generate settlement reports for participants, settlement banks and clearing banks and transfer securities between accounts of buyers and sellers after clearing banks confirm successful transfer of funds. "Through this new system, accounts on the CSD will be opened for clients by brokers or custodians. Custodian banks can open accounts for their clients but may not trade on the exchange.

"Private individuals cannot be direct clients of the CSD; they must go through their brokers or custodian banks," the BSE explained. "Under the new system, clients can give, buy and/or sell instructions to their brokers, who will execute the trades on the CSD."

The three operating broking firms in the country are Motswedi Securities, Capital Securities and Stockbrokers Botswana.

In last week's trading, the dominance on the financial counters persisted on the bourse with heavyweights Barclays, Stanchart and FNBB adding a combined 12.25 percent to cut down the DCI's year's losses to-date to a mere 4.52 percent. Following the announcement of the healthy set of interim results for the period ended June 30, 2008 Barclays was at the lead, up 50thebe to 750thebe, while FNBB and Stanchart went up 10thebe and 25thebe respectively. The foreign board experienced a dip of 0.14 points to close the week at 2,564.58 points. The major contributor to this was Anglo, which went down 16,869thebe to 26,799thebe. CIC Energy lost 272thebe to 2200thebe. A total of 4,358,471 shares valued at P11,103,207 were traded during the week. Meanwhile, Barclays Bank Botswana has announced that the last date of registration of the BBB004 Notes is at close of business on September 17, 2008.

The next interest payment for these notes is due on September 28, 2008. The interest payment will be P0.05375 per P1.00 of notes.

Withholding tax will be deducted from all interest payments in accordance with the prevailing tax legislation at the date of payment. This bond matures on 28 September 2008.


Source: Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter.