Google, Microsoft traded on JSE

Johannesburg - South African investors can now trade on the world's most well-known IT names, Microsoft and Google, the JSE said on Tuesday.

This follows the exchanges listing of single stock futures (SSFs) on both companies. "Since the listing on Friday December 11, 13 009 contracts have been traded on Microsoft and 656 contracts on Google.

"Like any other international derivatives products, retail investors can trade in these two American companies without using their R2m foreign allowance."

Allan Thomson, director of derivatives trading at the JSE, said the listing of SSFs on the two IT stocks, as well as the present SSF listing on Apple, allowed South African investors to further diversify their portfolios.

"Like the other international derivatives (IDX) listed on the JSE, these can be purchased through any JSE-registered broker in the same way one would purchase local derivatives products," he said.

This offered investors international exposure cost-effectively on a trusted trading platform, with none of the counter-party risk associated with over-the-counter trading, he said.

The other IDX products trading on the JSE include blu- chip companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Bank of America, Nokia, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, BP, Vodafone and GlaxoSmithKline.

"While retail investors and corporate entities do not have any exchange control restrictions, institutional investors do have to comply with foreign portfolio regulations," Thomson said.

"Contracts are priced and settled in rands."

Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington and is listed on the Nasdaq.

Launched in 1996, Google has its headquarters in Mountain View, California and is listed on both the Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange.

- Sapa