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Power supply issues trigger SGX glitch

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Power supply problems, not a cyber attack, resulted in a glitch that paralysed the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) securities and derivatives markets yesterday afternoon.

In a statement yesterday, SGX said the markets experienced an outage, "as a result of multiple power supply issues, affecting its hardware providing market participants' connectivity".

Market participants were disconnected at 2.18pm and SGX declared a formal trading halt at 2.51pm. No trades were executed between 2.18pm and 2.51pm, said SGX.

It reopened its securities market at 5.15pm.

"Trading was extended beyond the normal trading hours to provide for the required minimum of 30 minutes of continuous trading," it said.

TRADING RESUMED

Meanwhile, the trading of derivatives resumed at 7pm and will continue until 2am.

SGX said trading in both markets was orderly and the resumption was managed.

"We apologise for today's outage and the inconvenience caused to market participants. We are currently investigating the root cause for the disruption," said Mr Tim Utama, chief operations and technology officer of SGX.

The glitch angered brokers and remisiers.

"The whole market has been at a standstill," a trader told The Straits times online.

Remisier Alvin Yong said: "Brokerages aren't likely to be too happy about this because they are losing commissions. SGX may lose some clearing fees as well.

"This is a slight blow to its aspiration to be a world-class exchange. They shouldn't have to call for an industry standstill to trading."

One broker said the extent of the problem became evident only slowly.

"Initially, we thought it was just us. We alerted the backroom and when they investigated, realised other brokerages didn't have access to the markets as well.

"But we feel better because other brokerages are having the same problem, which means everybody can't trade. But we will lose commission fees because our fees rely on volume as well," The Straits Time quoted the broker as saying.

In April, trading on the derivatives market of SGX was suspended for over three hours due to technical problems.

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