Mumbai: A technical glitch shutdown National Stock Exchange (NSE) for over three hours Monday, dealing the country’s biggest stock exchange an embarrassing blow ahead of its plans to list as volumes on the rival bourse BSE surged.
Investors faced problems since morning in executing trade and the exchange stopped trading in cash as well as Futures and Options (F&O) segment.
Trading resumed fully Monday afternoon, with quotes for individual stocks finally restored with just over an hour of trading left. The long disruption frustrated traders and put a spotlight on the exchange at an awkward time.
The NSE’s plans for a listing that bankers say could raise as much as $1 billion have been delayed by a regulatory probe due to its disclosure in December that some brokers may have been provided unfair access to its servers in recent years.
The NSE did not provide a reason for Monday’s disruption, attributing it to “technical reasons.” Two sources familiar with the matter said it was an internal issue, ruling out any external cyber attack or hacking.
“The technical team of NSE is looking into the issue,” the exchange said in a statement.
The Finance Ministry has asked NSE and the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, to submit a report within the next two days on the reasons for the disruption, a senior finance ministry official said.
The technical glitch in its trading system also comes at a time when the NSE is awaiting approval from the markets regulator Sebi for its Rs 10,000 crore IPO.
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The disruption, which affected traders from the market open, surpassed a three-hour disruption suffered by the BSE in July 2014 because of a network outage.
Its rival BSE was operating normally Monday and saw a surge in trading volumes as shares hit new highs.
The NSE was able to resume trading for cash, as well as stock indexes and futures, when markets re-opened at midday, but multiple dealers said individual stocks were not updating normally or were suffering wide gaps in bid and offer prices.
The problem was not resolved until well into the trading session with just over an hour left in Monday’s session.