http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3DIHLVO6C&live=true&tagid=ZZZDQOQD20C&subheading=UK%20equities

LSE paralysed by technical problems
By Dave Shellock - 5 Apr 2000 12:12GMT

Investors in London's equity market were forced to sit on their hands on Wednesday morning as the stock exchange was hit by technical problems for the second time this week. None of the FTSE indices had been recalculated from the previous session's close, and prices displayed on trading screens were unreliable.

At 1130 GMT, the London Stock Exchange said it was shutting down and restarting its information system, a process it expected to take about three hours.

The situation was particularly frustrating as it followed the extreme volatility on Wall Street on Tuesday. Dealers warned that when trading does get properly under way, there could be violent price swings until the morning's trades have worked through the system.

The situation was made worse by the fact that Tuesday was the last day of the tax year. There was some talk in the market that the trading session could be extended to accommodate the extra business.

The London Stock Exchange was forced to suffer even more embarrassment after it announced that prices would become firm at 1020 GMT, and was then forced to retract the statement shortly afterwards.

Richard Hunter, head of trading at NatWest, said that the breakdown of the systems would be "a very costly exercise for investors who wanted to trade first thing this morning". He added that the situation was "very unacceptable".

When business does resume, it seems likely that share prices will fall sharply lower, given the hefty losses recorded by continental European bourses during the morning. The June FTSE 100 future, which offers a fair indication of the cash market, was down 120 at 6,370 in late morning business.

-- Jim McAteer (jim_mcateer@hotmail.com), April 05, 2000

Answers

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&c id=FT306EG2P6C&live=true&tagid=ZZZDQOQD20C&subheading=UK% 20equities

London trading extended after technical problems resolved
By Dave Shellock - 5 Apr 2000 14:56GMT

Technical difficulties at the London Stock Exchange, which halted trading on Wednesday, now appear to have been resolved. The LSE said that pre-order book trading would begin at 1430 GMT, with order book business starting at 1445 GMT.

The market will remain open on an official basis until 1730 GMT.

Seaq International, which enables UK investors to trade in overseas stocks, will not open.

The technical problems earlier meant that investors in London's equity market were forced to sit on their hands. None of the FTSE indices had been recalculated from the previous session's close, and prices displayed on trading screens were unreliable.

The situation was particularly frustrating as it followed the extreme volatility on Wall Street on Tuesday. Dealers warned that when trading does get properly under way, there could be violent price swings until the morning's trades have worked through the system. The situation was made worse by the fact that Tuesday was the last day of the tax year.

Richard Hunter, head of trading at NatWest, said that the breakdown of the systems would be "a very costly exercise for investors who wanted to trade first thing this morning".

-- Jim McAteer (jim_mcateer@hotmail.com), April 05, 2000.

snip

Today's problem was caused by a fault in the electronic feed that sends prices from the Exchange to dealers screens. Mark Dampier, of stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "It's been a very bad advertisement for the City of London. This is not going to make us look good on the world stage."

snip

http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,156121,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 05, 2000.

(SIGHTINGS HOMEPAGE)

London Stock Exchange Paralyzed Seven Hours By Computer 'Glitch'

By The Times City Staff (London)

http://www. the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/04/06/timnwsnws01036.html

4-6-00

London's reputation as a world financial centre was seriously damaged yesterday when a computer glitch paralysed the Stock Exchange for more than seven hours on what should have been one of its busiest days of the year. The shutdown, which deprived City stockbrokers of tens of millions of pounds in transaction fees, was serious enough to trigger an immediate investigation by the Financial Services Authority. Ministers also considered extending the 1999-2000 tax year to compensate private investors who missed out on billions of pounds of tax savings by selling or buying on the last day of the tax year. However, as the Stock Exchange hobbled back to life at 3.45pm and the trading day was extended to 8pm, the Treasury and the Inland Revenue issued statements refusing investors any concessions. The failure, which followed a shorter breakdown on Monday, forced stockbrokers and investors to sit on the sidelines after the previous evening's record trading on Wall Street. Tuesday had witnessed wild swings on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq technology share market. Stockbrokers were furious with the breakdown, the first serious stock market hitch since that caused by the storm of 1987. On an average day, 1.5 billion shares are traded. yesterday only 878 million changed hands. Ian Martin, co-head of trading at HSBC, the UK's biggest bank, said the breakdown could not have come at a worst time. "This is a key day in the tax year for private investors." Under normal circumstances, thousands of investors would have traded some of their stocks at the last minute to use up their annual capital gains tax allowance and offset any losses against previous gains. But the debacle did not prevent hundreds of million of pounds flowing into Isas. The London Stock Exchange said it had been crippled by a software problem which corrupted share price information sent to professional traders before the market opened. Martin Wheatley, an Exchange director, said the decision was taken to shut down the market, which trades electronically, rather than allow dealing to begin on incorrect share price information. SIGHTINGS HOMEPAGE - http://www.sightings.com

http://www.sightings.com/general/glitch.htm

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), April 06, 2000.