Christmas and New Year Opening Times

1.         Introduction

The purpose of this circular is to inform members of the opening and closing times of the Exchange and LCH.Clearnet Ltd services over the Christmas and New Year Period. It is also intended to provide members with information relating to clearing processes over this period. Please note that all times quoted in this circular are in GMT.

2.        Exchange Opening and Clearing Information

1. The table below details the closing times of the various exchanges:

   	NYSE.Liffe	LME	EDX London Ltd	Nodal
   24 Dec 09	Open (Trading hours aligned to underlying and related markets)	Closes 17.00	Closed (half trading day closing 12:30 in Russian IOB market)	Closed
   25 Dec 09	Closed	Closed	Closed	Closed
   28 Dec 09	Open (Trading hours aligned to underlying and related markets)	Closed	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day
   29 Dec 09	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day
   30 Dec 09	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day	Open Normal Business Day
   31 Dec 09	Open (Trading hours aligned to underlying and related markets)	Closes 17.00	Closed (half trading day in Russian market)	Open Early Close 18:30
   01 Jan 10	Closed	Closed	Closed	Closed

   Contract opening hours as per Euronext.Liffe London Notice No.3220

For the opening and trading hours of any EquityClear Exchanges or Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTF’s), please refer to the relevant Exchange or MTF for further details.

 2.2 Important Clearing Information

2.2.1   NYSE LIFFE

2.2.1.1 Financial Contracts

24 & 31 December 2009

Financial TRS/CPS will close approximately 1 hour after the cessation of trading.

29 December 2009

Last Trading Day for the December 2009 long Gilt contract. Trading ceases at 11:00.

2.2.1.2       Equity Contracts

24 & 31 December 2009

Equity TRS/CPS will close approximately 1 hour after the cessation of trading.

Exercise Notices must be submitted by the deadlines as set out in NYSE Liffe London Notice No.3086

2.2.1.3      Commodity Contracts

24 & 31 December 2009

Commodities TRS/CPS will close approximately 1 hour after the cessation of trading.

2.2.2   LME Clearing

24 December 2009 

All LME contracts will close at 17:00 for input to LMEsmart 

NB. All matching is now done via LMEsmart – please contact the LMEsmart helpdesk

2.2.2.1     LCH.Clearnet Clearing System

13:30 - Cash-Today deadline closes as normal.

15:15 - All futures and options prices available for display and transmission.

LME External Interface will be available as normal.

All Clearing facilities close at the normal time.

2.2.2.2  SWORD

16:00 - Warrant delivery instructions available.

22:00 - All SWORD facilities close.

31 December 2009

All LME contracts will close at 17:00 for input to LMEsmart

NB. All matching is now done via LMEsmart – please contact the LMEsmart helpdesk

2.2.3.1      LCH.Clearnet Clearing System

13:30 - Cash-Today deadline closes as normal.

15:00 TAPO declaration will be run as normal

15:15 - All futures and options prices available for display and transmission.

LME External Interface will be available as normal.

All Clearing facilities close at the normal time.

2.2.3.2  SWORD

16:00 - Warrant delivery instructions available.

22:00 - All SWORD facilities close.

3.         Clearing Hours

The table below details the closing hours of the various LCH.Clearnet services. 

4.          Deliveries

4.1       NYSE LIFFE

4.1.1  Financial Contracts

29 December 2009

Last Trading Day for the December 2009 Long Gilt contract.

30 December 2009

Last Notice Day for the December 2009 Long Gilt contract. Delivery notices must be submitted by 10:00.

31 December 2009

Final settlement day for the December 2009 Long Gilt contract.

4.1.2   Equity Contracts

4.1.2.1 Equity Option Exercise/Assignments

The table below details trade and settlement dates in respect of deliveries resulting from exercise and assignments on Equity Options and Stock Futures settling in CREST:

The table below details trade and settlement dates in respect of deliveries resulting from exercise and assignments on Equity Options and Stock Futures settling in EUROCLEAR:

4.1.2.2Stock Contingent Trades

The table below details trade and settlement dates in respect of deliveries resulting from Stock Contingent Trades settling in CREST:

The table below details trade and settlement dates in respect of deliveries resulting from Stock Contingent Trades settling EUROCLEAR:

4.1.3 Commodity Contracts

30 December 2009

First Notice Day for the January 2010 Wheat contract.

31 December 2009

Settlement Day for the December 2009 Cocoa contract.  The delivery deadlines remain unchanged.

4.2    EnClear

4.2.1  Freight

The Last Trading Day for December 2009 contracts is 24th December 2009. Trading ceases at 17:00 Hrs for Options and 18:00 Hrs for Forwards on 24th December 2009 and will expire that night. 
 

5.     Treasury Operations

1. Cut off times for 24 and 31 December 2009 are as follows:

   Overnight PPS calls to be confirmed by:	09:00hrs
   Cash movement requests:	09:30hrs
   Intra-day margin calls made until:	16:00hrs – London PPS 18:30hrs – US PPS
   Collateral	16:30hrs

   Bond prices and exchange rates will be available at 18:30hrs.

All other dates over the period will operate a normal business day.

 6.            Reports

Members are advised that banking reports will be produced each night following an LCH.Clearnet Ltd business day, as per normal procedures.  This means that reports in TRS/CPS will be overwritten each night. However, these reports can now be retrieved for any of the previous 3 days by entering ‘G=DD-MMM-YY’.

Members who access their Banking reports through the LME report printing and browser facility or the LCH C extranet will be able to retrieve them in the normal manner every day

7.          Further Information

Members should contact the relevant Exchange for opening hours on individual contracts.

For further information in relation to this circular please contact one of the following:

Fil De Vivo
Director, Business Operations