ASX, the operator of Australia’s main stock exchange, on Thursday halted trading in futures and options markets due to a “hardware-related issue”.
The bourse operator said ASX24, its derivatives market, was placed into a halt at about 10 a.m. Sydney time after the issue was found.
Equities trading, however, continued to operate normally.
The outage comes on the back of several disruptions to ASX’s trading systems in recent times, most notably in November 2020, when a software problem cost the exchange almost an entire trading day.
ASX’s market announcement platform had also experienced a brief outage in February.
The 2020 glitches prompted Australia’s market regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, to impose additional licence conditions on ASX last year following an investigation.
An independent review found that the bourse operator’s new trading system was not ready to go live, the country’s corporate regulator said.
The outage on November 16, 2020, nearly wiped out an entire session and damaged the reputation of the bourse operator.
The independent review conducted by IBM Australia found that while ASX met industry practices in 58 out of 75 of the capabilities assessed, it missed in 17.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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