NYSE Votes to Extend Trading, Open at 9:30

The board of the New York Stock Exchange voted Wednesday to open daily trading 30 minutes earlier, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, beginning Sept. 30, in an effort to accommodate the growing overseas interest in U.S. securities.

Officials of the Pacific Stock Exchange immediately said they will begin trading at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time, half an hour earlier than currently, so that the opening time will continue to coincide with the Big Board’s. The exchange will continue to close at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time, 30 minutes after the Big Board closes. Toronto Stock Exchange officials said they would follow suit, while officials of the American Stock Exchange said a proposal for a similar change would be put to its board of governors today.

Brokerages Surveyed

Extension of trading hours has been widely expected because of widening involvement of overseas investors in the U.S. securities markets. The industry continues to debate the merits of 24-hour trading, and the New York Stock Exchange is even now considering links with foreign exchanges to make such trading possible.

Big Board officials said Wednesday that the decision on the extra 30 minutes followed a survey of brokerages and other businesses that found most securities firms opposed to extending closing hours from the current 4 p.m. Eastern time.

In a statement, Big Board Chairman and Chief Executive John J. Phelan said the survey “indicated that a later New York market closing could cause logistical and timing problems for many firms.”

Industry officials in New York said a later closing time would increase the overtime expenses incurred by employees who process securities trades.

But officials of several West Coast securities firms complained that an earlier opening would force earlier work hours on traders, brokers and others who already rise before dawn for a work day that coincides with the New York exchange’s.

Distorted Work Day

“We recommended that they move the time of closing back,” said John R. Bolin, president of Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards in Los Angeles. “I’m very disappointed.”

In San Francisco, Charles Rickershauser, chairman of the Pacific Stock Exchange, said the move would cause “no operational difficulties whatever” for his organization. “But it’s already a rather distorted work day and I’m afraid now it will be even more so,” he said.

Industry officials said they did not believe the change would cause any dramatic increase nin the daily volume of trading. “The effect will be negligible immediately and only slight in the long run,” predicted Perrin Long, an analyst at Lipper Analytical Services in New York.

The extension of hours will be the first in more than 10 years at the Big Board. In October, 1974, the closing time was moved back to 4 p.m. from 3:30 p.m.

The change must be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but that is expected.