His comments come a day after Hong Kong's secretary for financial services Rafael Hui Si-Yan called on the exchange to consider extending trading hours to avoid losing turnover in Hong Kong stocks to the London market. The Hong Kong stock exchange has been under pressure to extend its trading day since the Hong Kong Futures Exchange (HKFE) extended daily trading by 30 minutes last week to compete with its Singapore counterpart. Tsui said the extension of hours was needed to ensure Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre by enabling investors to trade in different markets globally around theclock. ``We are not talking about extending trading hours for just five or 10 minutes, but about the possibility of new trading sessions,'' Tsui said.

``The trading hours of London and New York have been matched with each other. If the HK stock exchange matched with the two markets, the three time zones of the US, Europe and Asia could match each other,'' he added. ``Investors would then be able to trade 24 hours globally,'' he said.To co-ordinate its opening and closing times with the New York and London markets, Hong Kong would need to have an early morning and an evening trading session. The Hong Kong market opens at 1000 hrs (0730 hrs IST) and closes at 1600 hrs (1330 hrs IST). The London market opens at 1630 hrs Hong Kong time (1400 hrs IST) in summer and 1730 hrs (1500 hrs IST) in winter, while the New York market closes in the early hours of the morning Hong Kong time. Tsui said the exchange would consider all possible options for extended trading hours, and would reconsider proposals made lastyear.

Last year, the bourse suggested extending trading by adding another one-hour afternoon trading session. Two proposals were made. The first included a one-hour extension in the trading hall after the close at that time. The second proposal was to stop business in the trading hall after the afternoon trading session, but allow brokers to use second terminals to trade for another hour, after a 30-minute break. The proposals were rejected because of a perceived lack of interest among retail investors and fears over costs.