Mauritius Futures Trading Delayed on Lack of Market Makers, Benimadhu Says

The Stock Exchange of Mauritius delayed the introduction of futures trading because of a lack of market makers, Chief Executive Sunil Benimadhu said.

“Unless we have a number of market makers, we cannot go ahead,” Benimadhu said in an interview in the capital, Port Louis, today. “We will need three to four of them and we are talking to some potential institutions. The stock exchange is ready. The brokers have already undergone training,” he said.

A market maker is a brokerage or dealer that facilitates trading in a security.

The bourse, sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-biggest by market value after South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, was due to introduce futures on the SEM-7 index of the seven largest companies traded on the exchange and some of the most liquid stocks by May, Benimadhu said in January. That would make it the second bourse in Africa to trade futures after South Africa’s JSE Ltd., which manages the continent’s biggest bond and equities exchanges.

The 38-member SEMDEX Index declined for a fourth day, trading 0.9 percent lower at 1,697.41 by 1:07 p.m. in Port Louis, paring this year’s gain to 2.2 percent.

The Stock Exchange of Mauritius wants African companies to use it as a platform to raise capital and is targeting those that already have a presence on the island, Benimadhu said.

“Mauritius has a competitive edge as it is well regulated, there aren’t any taxes on dividends and capital gains,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis via Johannesburg at 1999 or pmrichardson@bloomberg.net

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