Rivals lash out at LSE after damaging technology glitch
RIVALS to the London Stock Exchange expressed outrage yesterday after a crippling technical glitch put a stop to trading, claiming investors had effectively been duped by an inability to route their custom to other venues.
The problem brought trading to a halt for over three hours on the London Stock Exchange. During that time, the market was put into “auction”, meaning buy and sell orders could be submitted by traders but not fully executed.
Chi-X Europe, one of the primary contenders to the LSE’s crown among the newer exchanges, called on the Financial Services Authority to ensure individual venues act “in the interest of the overall market” after such system failures.
“The introduction of alternative venues was designed to improve competition and reduce concentration risk,” Chi-X said. “These objectives are not achievable while the markets of listing are able to use technical constructs to prevent normal market activity continuing.”
The problem was reminiscent of September last year, when a computer crash brought the market to its knees for seven hours on one of the busiest days of the year.