At the Online Securities Trading Asia 2000 conference, SFC executive director Mark Dickens said: 'What we are considering doing is providing more guidance to the brokerage industry on how to run an electronic service because many of the brokers are not familiar with the issues involved. We will talk to the smaller brokers over the next few months to see what are their guidance requirements.'

According to Mr Dickens, the SFC has no plans to change regulations due to the introduction of online trading as existing legislation is adequate. The regulatory body examined last week's volatile trading for market misconduct but has not come up with any evidence. Mr Dickens said: 'So far, we have received no complaints and we have detected no misconduct. It seems to be a normal market adjustment to worries about oil prices, Intel and the euro.'

At the same conference, Singapore Exchange president Ang Swee Tian said that the Singapore bourse was in discussions with other regional exchanges to set up trading agreements which would enable Asian exchanges to compete more effectively with larger Western exchanges and smaller electronic communications networks. Mr Ang commented: 'There is a need for exchanges in this region to co-operate and work together more closely', adding that Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing wass 'not averse to the idea of exploring co-operative opportunities.'