The Philippine Stock Exchange cancelled trading on Tuesday because of a technical glitch that affected 43 stock brokers.
“Please be advised that trading at PSE is cancelled on Jan. 4, 2022 due to technical problems encountered in establishing connection between the NASDAQ trading engine and the Flextrade front-end system,” PSE president Ramon Monzon said in an advisory.
“PSE continues to work and coordinate closely with representatives of NASDAQ and Flextrade to identify the underlying cause of the above-described production issue and come up with the appropriate solution,” he said.
Monzon said the exchange exerted all efforts to resolve the problem. It was not clear when trading would resume.
The PSE said 43 of the 125 trading participants in the local bourse were unable to connect to the exchange’s trading engine.
“Article VIII, Section 2 of PSE’s Revised Trading Rules states that the Exchange may halt the trading in the market if at least one-third of the trading participant-users cannot access the trading system,” Monzon said.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index fell 1.1 percent to 7,042 on Monday, the first trading day of 2022, as Metro Manila was placed under stricter quarantine rules from Jan. 3 to 15 over the steep rise in COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, the PSE said it was named as the Best Stock Exchange in Southeast Asia for 2021 at the Marquee Awards of the 15th Annual Best Deal and Solution Awards 2021 by institutional investment magazine, Alpha Southeast Asia.
“With record number of equity offerings both in deal size and a wide range of asset classes introduced into the market, the Philippine Stock Exchange has emerged as the Best Stock Exchange in Southeast Asia. High profile landmark issues like MREIT’s $305-million IPO and FMCG-focused Monde Nissin Corp.’s P55.8-billion IPO are, in fact, perfect examples of how best to create shareholder value. With a stronger framework of corporate governance in place led by the PSE and an ongoing push to raise the standards of timely disclosure, PSE is well positioned among issuers and investors, both local and foreign,’ Alpha Southeast Asia said.