The Tokyo Stock Exchange, Asia's largest equities bourse, said it would go ahead with the launch of its new trading system as planned on Monday after running final checks.

The new system will be able to process trades in 5 milliseconds, 600 times faster than the 2 to 3 seconds needed on the current system, and roughly the same speed as the New York and London stock exchanges.

A spokesman the TSE said the exchange ran final checks on the system, called Arrowhead, and determined that it was ready to be launched as planned on Jan. 4, the first trading day of 2010.

Analysts say Arrowhead should allow for more computer-driven trading including so-called high-frequency trading where algorithms are used to trade thousands of shares in milliseconds to profit from tiny spreads and market imbalances.

The TSE, which plans to go public after April 2010, is betting on Arrowhead after several embarrassing computer glitches tarnished its image with investors.

Last month the exchange was ordered to pay $120.5 million in damages to Mizuho Securities for a botched trade in 2005.

A 2006 accounting scandal at Livedoor Co sparked a massive sell-off of the Internet company. Unable to handle the rush of orders from panicked investors, the TSE had to curtail its trading hours for three months.

(Editing by Ron Askew)

Investment Tokyo Stock Exchange Launch