Through this press release, the Albanian Securities Exchange informs its members and the public that due to the actual situation and effects caused by the COVID-19, which brought the limitation of working hours and citizens’ movement by the Government, changes are made even in the operational hours of the Albanian Financial Instruments Settlement and Registration system. AFISaR is the central securities depository for Government debt securities and it is administrated by the Bank of Albania (central bank).
Given the ALSE trading is closely related with the settlement process of transactions for securities and cash (known as post-trading process), it is also necessary to change the operating hours of the stock exchange. Thus the entire the chains of trading-clearing-settlement process shall be carried out without any further problem.
For this reason, the ALSE Supervisory Board, has made its extraordinary meeting today at March 26th 2020 in full compliance with the Article 162, point 2, of the law no. 9901, date 14.04.2008 “On merchants and commercial companies”. In this meeting, the ALSE Supervisory Board took the decision to change the official trading hours of securities in ALSE markets.
The new hours approved by the ALSE Supervisory Board, which will enter in force on March 27th 2020, are as following:
Trading schedule only during the official trading days (Tuesday and Thursday)
| Trading Schedule | Before | New Time-Schedule |
| Off – Exchange 1 | 09:00-10:00 | 08:30-09:30 |
| Pre – Trade Hours | 10:00-12:00 | 09:30-10:30 |
| Official Trading Hours | 12:00-14:00 | 10:30-11:30 |
| Off – Exchnage 2 | 14:00-17:00 | 11:30-12:30 |
Off – Exchange transactions reporting hours in days other than the official trading hours in the stock exchange will be every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
The Albanian Securities Exchange appeals to the public to take into consideration the new time-schedules in order to trade Government Securities in the stock exchange. Furthermore, ALSE requires to its members to notify their clients (when this is possible) regarding the new trading time-schedule changes at ALSE.
The Albanian Securities Exchange guarantees the public that, even in these extraordinary conditions, will do its best, to ensure a free, fair, transparent and unbiased market, were investors can allocate their Government securities portfolio, listed in our markets.