Nortel trading halted again on the TSE

WebPosted Thu Oct 26 10:12:44 2000 ET TORONTO - The Toronto Stock Exchange halted trading in Nortel shares again this morning, just 15 minutes into the trading day, as its computers once gain had trouble coping with orders to buy or sell Nortel.

At the time of the last trade, Nortel was at $70.50, down $1.05 on volume of 1.8 million shares.

TSE officials had said earlier today that they expected Nortel would trade "normally" Indeed, the stock managed to open at 9:30 a.m. ET at $71.50, down five cents. But it quickly became clear that the trading difficulties that forced the TSE to halt Nortel trading yesterday at 11:58 a.m. ET were not over.

A TSE official said the exchange could not say when Nortel would begin trading again. The problem may be due to the high volume of Nortel orders.

In New York, Nortel was trading as usual. It was up $1.38 US at $46.25 US by 9:50 a.m.

The TSE halted trading in Nortel yesterday when the TSE's computers were unable to cope with the huge volume of sell orders. Many trades were diverted to the NYSE.

The sell-off was sparked by the weaker-than-expected sales numbers Nortel posted after the close of trading Tuesday.

YESTERDAY:Nortel plunges 29 per cent; TSE falls 840 points By the time trading ended yesterday, Nortel had plunged 29 per cent, and the TSE 300 Composite Index had endured its biggest one-day point loss in history (840 points).

Yesterday's breakdown in the TSE's computers was the fifth this year, and the second that was Nortel specific. In June, traders also couldn't trade Nortel stock in Toronto, but could in New York.

http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/NWview.cgi?/news/2000/10/26/nortel2001026

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 26, 2000