London Stock Exchange trading hit by ‘tech problem’

Saturday, 26 February 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

* LSE says share trading halted by technical issue

* “Uncrossing” trades under investigation, may be cancelled (Adds further comment from LSE, traders’ remarks and details)

LONDON, (Reuters) - Share trading on the London Stock Exchange was halted at the open on Friday with the operator blaming a technical problem.

“The uncrossing trades at the opening auction are under investigation for potential cancellation,” said Lauren Crawley-Moore, spokeswoman for the LSE.

“There is a pause in order-driven securities trading, we are investigating problems in SETS and SETS QX,” she said, adding that she was not able to say when the problem may be resolved.

On Tuesday, Borsa Italiana, a unit of LSE, suspended its trading for hours because of a technical glitch.

Technical difficulties on the London Stock Exchange caused a halt in trading for three and a half hours in November, 2009.

“It’s a little bit frustrating -- we’ve had reasonable moves in these markets in the last few days and no one can trade,” Mark Priest, senior equities trader at ETX Capital said.

“They’ve not covered themselves in glory really.”

Dealers were worried that the problem might not be fixed before the release of fourth-quarter UK gross domestic product figures at 0930 GMT.

There’s no news on how long it’s going to be (before they fix the problem) ... let’s hope it opens before the GDP numbers,” Priest said.