BSE: Technical snag halts trade for over 2 hours

Investors were unable to execute buy or sell orders today for two-and-half hours on the Bombay Stock Exchange, as trading on the bourse was halted between 12 pm to 2:30 pm due to technical glitches.

According to brokers, trading on the Asia's oldest bourse was not normal since morning. Initially (till 12noon ) orders (buy and sell) were being executed on the exchange but there were no confirmation for those trades, some BSE members told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

Finally, the exchange decided to halt the trade at noon, as a result investors were unable to track the movement of Sensex -- the benchmark index of the bourse.

Initially, trading was halted from 12 noon to 1:00 pm due to some technical snag, but was further extended to 1:30 pm and again till 2.30 pm, as technicians needed some time to resume the session.

Trading on BSE became normal after 2:30 pm till the end of session. However, trading on the National Stock Exchange was normal.

Though market experts said there was no so big impact on the volume of trades due to this technical glitch as BSE has a little market share in terms on volume. "Volume is quite large in the F&O

and cash segment on the NSE.

"BSE accounts lower volume in both--derivative as well as in cash," a broker said. Because of Monday's technical problem, total trading hour on the BSE was 3 hours and 45 minutes instead of normal 6 hours and 15 minutes.

First 15 minutes (from 9:00 to 9:15 am) is for pre-open session. In June this year, Sensex had plunged 600 points, when shares of the most valued firm RIL tanked 20 per cent due to a faux pas over ICICI Bank share quotation.

According to marketmen, that time the freak sale happened after some trader off-loaded Reliance Industries Ltd's stocks at an unbelievable level of Rs 840.55 against the previous close of Rs 1,045.05.

Later, the BSE had clarified there was no manipulation involved in the sell order of Reliance Industries shares on June 1 and the price decline was a result of a human error.