LME announces measures to boost electronic trading

LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters): The London Metal Exchange (LME) unveiled a set of proposed measures on Wednesday designed to boost liquidity in electronic trading while also seeking to protect its complex structure used for deals in physical metal.

The exchange released a white paper detailing a liquidity provider programme, the introduction of block trade thresholds, new trading functionality and market data changes, it said in a statement.

The exchange, the world's oldest and largest market for industrial metals, said block limit rules would mean that small-sized trades on monthly dates would have to be executed on its electronic LMESelect system.

"These future-focused measures... seek to grow participation in our markets, and make our prices as representative and accessible as possible, while continuing to support physical market trading practices," Chief Executive Matthew Chamberlain said.

The LME, owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd said the new block limit rules would not apply to deals using the LME's daily prompt dates mainly used by physical users, such as miners and industrial consumers.