London (Platts)--29Nov2010/619 am EST/1119 GMT
Singapore Exchange and the London Metal Exchange have received an approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US futures markets regulator, to offer their new metals futures contracts to US customers, SGX said Monday. The CFTC approval means that eligible institutions and market participants in the US can trade the LME-SGX futures for copper, aluminium and zinc by direct access from within the US. "The decision will significantly enhance the appeal of the contracts as a hedging or trading tool in the international marketplace," SGX said in a statement. The new contracts, which are scheduled to start trading on February 15, 2011, will replicate the specifications of the LME's LMEmini contracts, which, at 5 mt per lot, are smaller than standard 25 mt/lot LME futures and options contracts for aluminium, copper and zinc, and therefore more accessible to a wider range of investors. The new contracts are traded and cleared exclusively on SGX. --Agnieszka Troszkiewicz, a_troszkiewicz@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Metals Week. See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products/metalsweek