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
   23 Dec 10	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day	Open   Early Close 20:00
   24 Dec 10	Please refer to NYSE Liffe London Notice No.3351	Open LME Smart closes at 17:00	Closed (Half trading day closing 12:30 in the Russian IOB Market)	Closed
   27 Dec 10	Please refer to NYSE Liffe London Notice No.3351	Closed	Open  (Russian & IOB contracts closed)	Closed
   28 Dec 10	Please refer to NYSE Liffe London Notice No.3351	Closed	Open  (Russian & IOB contracts closed)	Open Normal Business Day
   29 Dec 10	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day
   30 Dec 10	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day	Open  Normal Business Day
   31 Dec 10	Please refer to NYSE Liffe London Notice No.3351	Open  LME Smart closes at 17:00	Closed  (Half trading day closing 12.30 in the Russian IOB Market)	Open   Early Close 20:00
   03 Jan 11	Please refer to NYSE Liffe London Notice No.3351	Closed	Open    (Half trading day closing 12.30 in the Russian IOB Market)	Closed

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         LME Clearing

  24 December 2010

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

NB. All matching is done via LME Smart – please contact the LME Smart helpdesk

2.2.2.     Synapse

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

14:30 – Settlement price for OTC Bullion available.    

15:30 - All futures and options prices available for display and transmission.

LME External Interface will be available as normal.

31 December 2010

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

NB. All matching is done via LME Smart – please contact the LME Smart helpdesk

2.2.3.      Synapse

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

14:30 – Settlement price for OTC Bullion available.

15:00 TAPO declaration will be run as normal

15:30 - All futures and options prices available for display and transmission.

LME External Interface will be available as normal.

Synapse will close for trade messages at 17:30. 

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 2010

Last Trading Day for the December 2010 Gilt contract.

30 December 2010

Last Notice Day for the December 2010 Gilt contract. Delivery notices must be submitted by 10:00.

31 December 2010

Final settlement day for the December 2010 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:

4.1.2.2  Stock 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 2010

First Notice Day for the January 2011 Wheat contract.

4.2    EnClear

4.2.1  Freight

The Last Trading Day for December 2010 contracts is 24th December 2010. Trading ceases at 17:00 Hrs for Options and 18:00 Hrs for Forwards on 24th December 2010 and will expire that night.

The last trading day for December 2010 Chinese Steel, Containers, Iron Ore and Coal is December 31st 2010. Registration and clearing ceases at the normal business day times for these contracts.

4.3     LME DELIVERIES

LME Sword and OTC Bullion delivery instructions will be available at 16:15 on the 24 & 31 December.

5.   Treasury Operations

Cut off times for 24 and 31 December 2010 are as follows:

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 LCH Clearnet Ltd 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