The Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) was established in 1990 as the first Stock Exchange in Malta. Trading sessions commenced on a weekly basis in Malta Government Stocks in January 1992. Initially trading was conducted manually on a call-over basis adopting the order-driven concept. In a short span of time, the MSE experienced many developments – it moved to electronic trading and later on to remote off-the-floor trading in September 2001.

The Malta Stock Exchange is authorised as a market operator by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) under the Financial Markets Act Cap.345 of the Laws of Malta.

MARKETS

The Malta Stock Exchange strives to ensure that the highest standards of market integrity are applied to all the activities conducted on its markets to ensure that appropriate levels of investor protection are in place, among which are the following:

i) clear and transparent bye-laws for the admission of financial instruments to trading ensuring that these are capable of being traded in a fair, orderly and efficient manner.

ii) appropriate trading, settlement and clearing arrangements for shares admitted to trading on its markets in line with those required under European Law including Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)

iii) Pre and Post trade information on all securities dealt on its market.

iv) Membership rules which have been approved by the Malta Financial Services Authority.

v) Continuous monitoring of the trading activity on its markets and monitoring of member firms' compliance with the trading procedures and applicable regulations, as well as the Prevention of Financial Markets Abuse Act Cap.476 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act Cap.373 of the Laws of Malta on an ongoing basis.

vi) Daily reporting to the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) of all trades executed on the its market and on the off-exchange market, together with the reporting of any suspicious transactions.

Currently the Malta Stock Exchange operates two markets the Regular Market in which Equities, Corporate Bonds and Government Bonds are traded, and the Treasury Bill Market.

The Regular Market

The first period within the Regular Market is the ‘Pre-Open’. During this time new orders may be placed on the order book, existing orders revised or deleted. A put-through session is also conducted during this period. During the Put-through session a member acts on behalf of both the buying and the selling client, this is possible because both sides of the order have agreed on the price and the volume of the same security. Put-throughs are executed on exchange because they are executed in line with the trading regulations of the MSE. The opening price is calculated immediately before the  continuous trading session, this stage is referred to as ‘At the Open’ stage. The opening price is calculated in accordance with the opening algorithm which is based on the highest volume of trades. At the completion of the Opening Algorithm, the market will be open for normal continuous trading. Each new order, revision (CFO) or cancellation (CXL) will be processed by the system on arrival. If an order cannot be executed immediately it will be queued in accordance with the Priority of Orders for Execution.

The Treasury Bill Market

The Treasury Bill Market started operating following the introduction of the Malta Treasury Bills (Dematerialisation) Regulations 2007 in April 2007. This Market is open during the Regular Market session and Clearing and Settlement for transactions executed on this market is on a T+ 0 basis.