The London Stock Exchange today announced its plan to launch a new market for covered warrants by the end of September. The new market will follow the opening up of covered warrants to retail investors through the introduction of a new FSA regulatory structure.

The new market will provide investors with geared exposure to a wide range of different products, from overseas companies not already traded on the Exchange to equities, indices and equity baskets.

There has been strong issuer support for the launch of the market. BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale and Trading Lab have expressed their interest in issuing warrant programmes.

Chris Broad, Head of Broker Services at the Exchange, said:

"Opening this new covered warrant market to investors provides the Exchange's customers with a broader product range. The benefits of the product include gearing and the exposure to securities available through the Exchange without having to pay stamp duty, which together make for an exciting new market for retail and institutional investors and widens their choice of investment products."

Notes to editors:

The Exchange will offer two ways of trading covered warrants:

• Through a new segment on SETS, the Exchange's electronic order book, providing continuous trading centred on electronic order execution against market maker positions; or

• Through the Exchange's RSP Gateway for price formation and information, which is a central solution for routing messages between stockbrokers and Retail Service Providers (RSPs).

To find out more about our covered warrant market visit our technical library

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