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Enoch Yiu

'Lunch is for wimps,' Gordon Gekko told the world in Wall Street. He may be right but the saying is particularly unpalatable in Hong Kong, where long business lunches are sacrosanct. Until today, that is. 
Longer trading hours from today will mean brokers may have to bolt their food or even scoff a sandwich at their desk rather than linger over dessert at their favourite restaurant. 
Veteran broker Cheung Tin-sang, well-known in the local brokerage community for his love of good cuisine and fine wine, hosted lunch gatherings last week to bid farewell to the two-hour lunch break, a 100-year tradition which ended  on Friday.
He joined friends and customers to say goodbye to the tradition in style: grilled pigeon, steamed fish, beef curry, pork chop and abalone and a glass of Bordeaux.
'As the Chinese saying goes - eating is the number one priority for people. That is why having a good meal is so important to our nation,' Cheung said in his favourite club in Central.
 The stock exchange's new extended trading hours will have a big  impact on his daily routine. 
The market will open 30 minutes earlier and lunch will be cut by 30 minutes to one and a half hours. Lunch will also begin 30 minutes earlier, at midday, with the market's 4pm close remaining unchanged.
The  decision by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing  to extend trading hours is aimed at bringing the bourse closer to stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which trade from 9:30am to 11:30am and from 1pm to 3pm. In March next year, HKEx will cut the lunch break by another 30 minutes, so afternoon trade will begin at 1pm - which, until last week, was when brokers tended to start lunching. That will bring Hong Kong's trading hours into line with Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The change is also intended to improve competitiveness because many overseas markets no longer break for lunch.
Cheung, 73, started as a broker in 1958 and is one of the market's longest serving brokers. He is still active and trades for customers every day.
When he first became a broker, things were much more leisurely, with no trading at all on Wednesday afternoons. 
'This allowed people to go to the  races. But it also allowed time for back office people to clear the settlement backlog,' he said. Trading hours back then were from 10am to 12:30pm and the afternoon trade ran from 2.30pm to 3:30pm, only lengthening to 4pm in the 1980s.
'I don't believe trading hours have a big impact on turnover. When we had four stock exchanges in the 1970s, the Kowloon Stock Exchange opened on Saturday mornings but did very little business and so cancelled the sessions,' Cheung said.
Cheung does not mind the earlier morning sessions, as he swims at 6am  and is in the office by 8am, but he valued the two-hour lunch. 'The lunch hour is a good time to enjoy good food and some wine with your customers and  peers,'  he said.  
In 1986, the four stock exchanges were combined to form the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong which later merged with the futures exchange and three related clearing houses to form the HKEx in 2000.
 The following year a proposal to extend trading from four hours a day to 11 hours a day by scrapping the lunch break and adding an evening session was strongly opposed by  brokers and subsequently scrapped.
The exchange proposed a milder version last year which was accepted. 
'[Lunch]  is not only for leisure but also for business,' Cheung said. 'But yes, it is too much of a luxury to have two hours for lunch nowadays. I think one and half hours is long enough, but  one hour  would be too short.'  
Cheung, originally from  Shunde - a city in Guangdong well known for its cuisine, likes to create menus and give both stock tips and cooking tips to customers  at his lunch table. Now, he has to change to cope with the new  times.
'I am considering buying a microwave for the office when the lunch break is cut to only one hour,' he said. 'Or I will bring a home-made lunchbox to the office.'
That would be  bad news for the many restaurants in Central that do good business serving brokers.
In the golden days of the brokerage business in the 1970s, brokers were big spenders at restaurants and some liked to order shark's fin soup with rice - a delicacy that became synonymous with the good times.  
Veteran broker Choi Chen Po-sum recalled how and when the dish began. 
'That was in early 1973 when the Hang Seng Index had risen to a peak of 1,700 points. Local brokers could earn good commission income and earn quick money by investing in the high-flying stocks themselves,' she said.
'Restaurants and clubhouses liked to reserve big tables for brokers as they wanted to get stock tips. They always reserved the best seafood and delicacies for us. The shark's fin soup with rice was not on the menu but when we asked the waiter to prepare something simple, he  came up with white rice and sharp's fin soup for us and that's how the dish began,' she said. 
The dish cost about HK$50  per person, which was expensive at a time when a normal lunch cost just a few dollars.
Choi said several brokers and customers tended to share a big bowl of shark's fin soup, mixing it with white rice. 'That's delicious - and a good lunch.' 
David Tung Wai, the city's longest serving broker  who started his brokerage career in Shanghai 60 years ago and came to Hong Kong in the 1950s, said market lunch breaks in Shanghai and Hong Kong have always been about  two hours.
'Sometimes we go out for lunch but sometimes we have catering or hire a chef to cook for the staff. The boss, the staff and the customers can all take  lunch together. That is cheap and comfortable and allows quality time to exchange ideas,' Tung said.
Tung is firmly against the shortened lunch break. 'Chinese people take meals very seriously. While the Westerners can have sandwiches every day, we want soup and several cooked dishes to share. Shorter lunches aren't good for the health of staff and customers.'
Tung said  that Shanghai and Shenzhen still have one and half hours for lunch  and he does not think Hong Kong should reduce the break  to one hour  next year.
'The exchange said it wants to match (hours) with the mainland. But then both Shanghai and Shenzhen close at 3pm - should we also close our market earlier?'  
Some companies and fund houses will also be affected because many like to host media or investor briefings during lunch. 
Joseph Tong Tang, executive director of Sun Hung Kai Financial, said he will have to remind his team to move the morning meeting  forward. 
Tong said brokers would still need to entertain customers over lunch. 'But we will have to rush back to the office when trading resumes. The food won't seem so tasty and you'll be worried about the market,' he  said.
Despite brokers' complaints about the change, they concede that Hong Kong needs to catch up. 
Major markets in the United States, Britain, and Australia  no longer break for lunch. Singapore  cancelled  its lunch break this month and Tokyo has shortened its lunch  interval.
Before the extension the Hong Kong market only traded four hours a day - among the shortest sessions in the world, barely ahead of Manila's 2 1/2 hours. Most other markets trade six hours to  eight hours a day.
'As the stock exchanges around the world are trading longer, Hong Kong has to catch up,' Cheung said.
'That is a shame. We are living in a world in which everyone has to chase a profit. We can no longer spend time with friends to enjoy good food that has taken time to prepare. 'That's the price we have to pay as an international financial centre.'
First bite
Brokers are being weaned off taking two-hour lunches
Trading will begin 30 minutes earlier from today, with the opening from: 9.30am
The lunch break will also be brought forward 30 minutes to: 12noon



Those were the days - long lunch kissed goodbye