The leading high-tech stock exchange Nasdaq is buying a 58% holding in its troubled European equivalent Easdaq for an undisclosed sum and renaming it Nasdaq Europe. The acquisition will mean that Nasdaq can offer 24-hour global trading. A new European Trading System, ETS, is due to be launched by the company in May or June this year.

Nasdaq is the world’s second largest stock exchange and already has a presence in Japan. Easdaq was set up in Brussels five years ago and lists around 60 companies.

On Monday, Nasdaq also announced a partnership with the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), the world's leading electronic derivatives exchange, to develop the single stock futures market, based on global stocks, for US and European customers.

These products will be listed on LIFFE's electronic trading platform. Nasdaq and LIFFE are setting out to lead the development of single stock futures in the US market and to further develop the European market. Later this year, regulatory changes for the first time, will enable US investors to trade single stock futures.

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