Singapore's SMX launching copper, gold, silver trade

SINGAPORE, April 13 (Reuters) - The Singapore Mercantile Exchange will launch cash-settled gold, silver and copper futures contracts on April 15, the exchange said in a press release, which may carve out a new market for speculators seeking arbitrage opportunities.

'(The) exchange will begin trading cash-settled gold, silver and copper futures contracts from April 15, 2011, in contract sizes of 100 troy ounces, 5,000 troy ounces and 5 metric tons (MT) respectively,' the exchange said in the note.

SMX, controlled by India's Financial Technologies, has previously said it plans to launch a cash-settled iron ore futures contract, based on the iron ore index by data provider Metal Bulletin which uses a 62 percent iron content benchmark.

Currently the exchange, which began trading on Aug. 31 2010, offers physically deliverable euro-denominated gold futures as well as euro-dollar and oil futures.

Traders said the copper contract might gain attention.

'The copper contract looks very interesting. If it develops sufficient liquidity, we could see a golden opportunity to arbitrage between this new contract an the LME-SGX minis,' a Singapore trader said.

'We'll keep an eye on the gold and silver offerings too, but I am less confident of success there.'

In February, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) launched small-sized, cash settled metal futures with the London Metal Exchange.

'We are also confident of gaining the attention of arbitragers, algorithmic and high frequency traders to use our low latency, robust and scalable trading platform,' SMX CEO Thomas McMahon, said.

But the trader said an arbitrage opening was not guaranteed.

'Arbitrage relies on market inefficiencies to cause prices to fall out of step. Both SMX and SGX say their platforms are fast and the contracts are cash-settled.'

'That may mean any arbitrage opening will be narrow and short-lived. That may make it a playground for the algo-guys, but not necessarily for us. We will have to see.'





(Reporting by Nick Trevethan; Editing by Ed Lane) Keywords: COMMODITIES SMX/ ([e-mail])([phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.