The Ice exchange on Monday launched a 21-hour trading day for all UK and EU gas futures and options contracts, but the move is yet to translate into a notable rise in liquidity.
Under the new timetable, the market is open from 00:50-22:00 GMT Tuesday-Friday, with a longer Monday trading day running from 22:50 GMT on Sunday evening to 22:00 GMT on Monday. This replaces the previous 07:00–17:00 schedule. Ice has also changed the trading hours for its coal, LNG and LNG freight contracts to align them with the new gas schedule.
The change takes effect today, 13 April, following confirmation in late January.
Market participants told Argus that the extended hours could prove useful for cross-commodity strategies, particularly for firms active in global energy markets. "It allows you to trade gas against the close of oil and Henry Hub," a trader pointed out.
The longer trading hours may also accommodate Asian buyers, but early trading suggested that participation from Asia remained thin. Traded TTF volumes at 10:00 GMT today were around six times higher than at 06:00 GMT. A trader noted that this could reflect the limited number of counterparties available to Asian buyers during those hours.
But another trader told Argus that it expects that "volumes will grow over the next days or week" once firms "set up the internal organisation to manage extended hours". But for now, many are in wait-and-see mode.
