Taipei: Intraday odd-lot trading is scheduled to start in line with standard block trading from early December as part of the Taiwan Stock Exchange's (TWSE) efforts to optimize the local intraday odd-lot trading mechanism, the exchange announced Thursday.

According to Focus Taiwan, the TWSE said execution of intraday odd-lot trading is slated to begin at 9 a.m. every trading session from December 7, 10 minutes earlier than the current trading time, while brokerages will start to take orders from investors for odd-lot trading at 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes earlier than the current schedule, also in line with standard block trading.

The TWSE stated that the change aims to improve convenience for investors and strengthen overall market efficiency. Odd-lot trading allows purchases of fewer than the standard lot of 1,000 shares and makes high-priced stocks more accessible to retail investors. For example, the standard lot of 1,000 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) shares will cost investors NT$2.41 million (US$75,548) based on Friday's closing price, while small investors can spend NT$2,410 to buy one TSMC share to become shareholders of the world's largest contract chipmaker.

To support the new arrangement, the TWSE said it will introduce pre-market information disclosure and delayed opening mechanisms for odd-lot trading to maintain transparent price discovery and orderly markets. The TWSE reminded investors that opening prices and actual opening times for the same stock may differ between odd-lot trading and standard block trading as they operate in two independent trading mechanisms.

The TWSE also mentioned that the exchange will continue to review intraday odd-lot trading to further improve the trading mechanism, aiming to balance price discovery and stabilize market operations. This is part of a broader initiative to promote the development of Taiwan's capital market and enhance trading quality for investors.

In early June, President Lai Ching-te expressed the government's ambition to transform Taiwan's capital market into an Asian equivalent of the tech-heavy Nasdaq market for startups globally. According to Lai, the government's efforts include relaxing rules on odd-lot trading and day trading, which allows traders to buy and sell, or sell and buy, the same shares in a single session.