The 30-minute pre-opening session will start at 9:30 am and the index basket order trading mechanism will only be applicable in the continuous trading session.

With the introduction of the pre-opening session, the Stock Exchange has amended the Listing Rules to require that listed company announcements will have to be published or received by the Stock Exchange at least 30 minutes before the start of the pre-opening session. This is to ensure that the market is informed before the commencement of the pre-opening session.

In addition, except where there are unforeseen circumstances, any request for suspension of trading in securities should be made by listed issuers no later than the commencement of the pre-opening session, and listed issuers should allow sufficient time for the Stock Exchange to implement the request by 9:30 am.

While not encouraged, it will still be possible to implement trading suspensions from 9:30 am up to 9:50 am when the order-matching period commences.

However, it will not be possible to implement them once the order-matching period has started.

Any request for trading suspension which cannot be implemented before 9:50 am will only be implemented at or after 10:00 am when the continuous trading session begins.

Amendments to the Stock Exchange's Listing Rules related to the pre-opening session, and amendments to Rules of the Exchange related to the pre-opening session and the index basket order trading mechanism will come into effect on March 25.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2002)