London Stock Exchange plans overnight venue to extend trading hours: FT

The London Stock Exchange is planning a separate overnight trading venue as it extends trading hours beyond its main market, marking the latest effort by a traditional exchange to broaden access as investors increasingly embrace around-the-clock trading.

The overnight venue is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2027 and will operate independently of the LSE's main market, which will retain its regular trading hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the Financial Times reported Tuesday. The new platform is expected to run from 5 p.m. to 7:50 a.m., with a 30-minute pause between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. for end-of-day processing.

At launch, the venue will initially provide access to exchange-traded products, including funds tracking UK and U.S. stock markets, per the report.

LSE Chief Executive Julia Hoggett told the FT that the initiative is largely aimed at meeting retail demand, particularly from international investors, and that institutional interest in interacting with retail order flow is increasing.

The exchange ultimately aims to extend trading hours for more than 2,600 exchange-traded products listed on the LSE. Hoggett said the exchange chose to begin with ETPs because extending trading to individual stocks would require addressing additional timing and regulatory considerations. 

Simon McQuoid-Mason, the LSE's head of new product and market structure and equities, also told the FT that the new venue is being designed with agentic trading capabilities as firms increasingly adopt AI-powered tools for portfolio analysis, market assessment, portfolio repositioning and trade execution.

Race to extend trading hours

The planned rollout follows a broader shift across traditional financial markets toward longer trading hours as exchanges respond to investor demand for continuous market access and increasing competition from crypto platforms that already operate around the clock. 

CME Group expanded crypto futures and options trading to a 24/7 schedule in May, while Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange and Cboe Global Markets have either launched or outlined plans to extend trading hours. 

Earlier this year, the NYSE also partnered with Securitize to develop a blockchain-based platform for 24/7 tokenized securities trading.

Crypto-native venues have been offering continuous market access for years. Exchanges including Binance, OKX, and Bybit provide round-the-clock trading for crypto assets and have expanded into products tied to traditional financial markets, including tokenized assets and perpetual contracts linked to equities, commodities and exchange-traded funds.