Currently the levy payable on a securities transaction by the buyer or the seller is 0.003 percent and for a futures contract transaction it is HKD0.6, but Hong Kong plans to cut this levy by ten percent on any trading in securities and futures/options contracts.
The Securities & Futures (Levy) (Amendment) Order 2014 has been passed to the Legislative Council for negative vetting and if passed will take effect from November 2014. This would mean that the levy payable on a securities transaction by the buyer of the seller will be 0.0027 percent and for a futures contract transaction it will be HKD0.54.
This is not the first reduction, the Securities and Futures Commission effected reductions in the levy of 20% in December 2006 and 25% in October 2010.
It is thought that this further reduction will benefit the general investing public and the financial industry. With an estimated daily turnover of 8.4 billion dollars in futures/options contracts this cut will reduce costs substantially.
