Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing has revised its policy on suspensions following the main board issuers' publication of announcements with price-sensitive information to allow investors to trade earlier on the information they have received via the Electronic Disclosure Project regime. The revisions will take effect March 10.

Currently an issuer can publish an announcement containing price-sensitive information from 6am to 9am on a trading day, but for main board issuers a half-day security trading suspension will be imposed. From March 10 the suspension will be lifted.

Both main board and growth enterprise market issuers currently can publish preliminary financial results announcements, suspension announcements and certain announcements not containing price-sensitive information 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm on a trading day. From March 10, all types of announcements, including price-sensitive ones, can be published 12.30pm to 2pm on a trading day, with no suspension imposed.

On responses to the consultation paper on proposed changes to practices on dissemination of listed issuers' announcements, HKEx said the majority of responses supported the proposed publication of issuer's announcements during trading hours. The changes announced today help the potential transition to publication of issuers' announcements during trading hours.

HKEx Head of Listing Richard Williams said the responses indicate the majority of respondents would like issuers' announcements to be published during trading hours.

"We agree the timeliness of information and opportunity to trade for Hong Kong investors can be improved even further. We will monitor the impact of these rule amendments and the related change in our suspension policy for a period before we consider further changes towards the achievement of this goal. It is very likely we will seek further feedback from the market on any further proposals to permit announcements during trading hours," he added.