Fat finger mistake pushes HSBC shares up 10pc in just 30 seconds
SHARES in HSBC were briefly suspended yesterday after a so-called fat finger trade sent the stock soaring by almost 10 per cent in just 30 seconds.
An single order placed at 11.20am for 18,049 – worth around £113.5m – was followed by hundreds more, sending shares up to 688p.
The jump prompted the London Stock Exchange’s circuit breaker safety system to kick in, suspending HSBC’s shares from trading for five minutes.
The LSE said it had no plans to cancel trades, meaning that if one party was responsible for the total 1.9m shares traded before the suspension, they could have lost around £400,000.