Taiwan’s financial regulator is set to allow futures trading in individual stocks listed on the Taiwan stock exchange as part of a push to make the country a more sophisticated international financial centre.

“The goal is to offer more options to investors and make the Taiwan market more diverse,” said an official at the Financial Supervisory Commission, its top financial regulator. Taiwan, whose stock market was one of the region’s star performers in the first half of this year, has looked to expand the regional presence of its stock market in recent months. The stock exchange has aggressively pursued listings by Taiwanese companies that had moved to mainland China, and recently co-operated with Hong Kong to cross-list exchange-traded funds.