SINGAPORE - The Singapore Exchange (SGX) reopened trading on the local securities market on Friday (July 15), after a technical glitch caused trading to be halted for most of the day on Thursday.
The Straits Times Index jumped at the open, up 0.7 per cent to 2,927.33.
Announcing the reopening before 7am on Friday, SGX said: "At 0938 hours on 14 July 2016, a technology issue affecting SGX's trade confirmation processes was identified, and a cutover from our primary to secondary trade confirmation systems was initiated at 1012 hours. Trade confirmations resumed at 1014 hours.
"However, missing and duplicate trade confirmation messages were identified and SGX put the market into an 'adjust phase' at 1138 hours.
"An adjust phase allows orders to be placed, removed or amended but no matching takes place. This enables members and investors to review and manage their orders. The market was orderly throughout the time it was open.
It was a chaotic day on Thursday with updates from the SGX adding to the confusion. The exchange missed targets on Thursday to reopen at 2pm and 4pm, instead closing the market for the rest of the day.
It said on Friday: "Challenges in reconciling the missing and duplicate messages resulted in a longer process than expected. SGX decided to close the market for the rest of the day on 14 July 2016 to ensure a fair, orderly and transparent market, having taken into consideration members' feedback."
Said SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye: "We sincerely apologise for the market disruption. Our recovery time has to be better and we must minimise downtime for market participants. I would like to thank our members and participants for working closely with us to resolve the issue."
SGX said investors can check on the status of their orders with their brokers. Members of the public can check its website for further updates if any, or call its hotline on (65) 6535 7511.
Thursdy's major outage was the fourth suffered by SGX has in two years. On Dec 3, 2014, market opening was delayed to 12.30pm because of a software glitch. On Nov 5, 2014, multiple power supply issues resulted in a three-hour trading crash that affected the derivatives trading system as well.
Last year, the Monetary of Authority of Singapore reprimanded SGX for lapses related to those two outages.
There was also a near two-hour disruption in derivatives trading last August after a technical fault.
