NZX trading halted on system glitch

Friday 27th June 2014

All trading on the New Zealand stock exchange has been halted until further notice as the stock market operator deals with a technical issue.

Trading was halted half an hour into the morning session and had initially been expected to resume at 10:45am after a "restart to the message gateway" and connectivity was confirmed, and later targeted an 11:25am time to resume trading before saying it was "experiencing ongoing technical difficulties" and would stay "on halt until further notice."

The issue is a FIX messaging problem, and is the second technical glitch that has caused the stock market operator to halt trading this month.

"It's not that it happened, it is the regularity of it happening," Brian Gaynor, executive director of Milford Asset Management told BusinessDesk. "It happens around the world, you get these things, but it is happening too often with the NZX and I think it dents confidence in the way the organisation is run. It shouldn't have these kind of problems.

"They really need to scrutinise and investigate whats wrong, and what they can do to improve it," Gaynor said.

In April, opening trade on the market was delayed 15 minutes, without further explanation.

The trading halt comes in a week that saw two new listings on the NZX, Serko and Gentrack, while Hirepool had been set to list next month but has since pulled its inital public offer. Other upcoming listings include Scales Corp and IkeGPS.

DeutscheCraigs chief executive Brett Shepherd, whose firm has managed several of the recent IPOs, said he didn't think the NZX's technical issues would deter companies from listing, or offshore institutions investing in the local market.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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