London Stock Exchange glitch delays open for biggest stocks

A spokeswoman for the exchange said there is no information available beyond the website statement, leaving traders in the dark about when trading will begin. PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - A "trading services issue" delayed the opening for some of the biggest stocks on the London Stock Exchange, the second such outage in little more than a year for one of Europe's biggest markets.

The opening is delayed for shares in the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 indexes, while other parts of the market operate as normal, the exchange provider said in a statement on its website. Companies in those benchmarks include HSBC Holdings Plc, BP Plc, AstraZeneca Plc and Tate & Lyle Plc.

The investigation into the issue continues and the LSE will provide an update at 9:15am London time, the LSE said.

A spokeswoman for the exchange said there is no information available beyond the website statement, leaving traders in the dark about when trading will begin.

The outage comes amid rocky markets, with the UK's looming departure from the European Union, the US-China trade dispute and concern about a recession causing price swings.

"The market is at the moment in a very delicate stage," said Klaudius Sobczyk, a fund manager at PEH Wertpapier AG in Frankfurt. "Should the market fall or rally strongly and the stock exchange is still shut, this would be a terrible development for active traders/investors."

The exchange suffered a one-hour trading delay in June 2018 caused by a software issue, the first major outage of its kind in seven years.

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