London Stock Exchange hit by double outage, small cap trading paralysed
The London Stock Exchange has resolved two outages that halted trading in some 2,000 smaller stocks for more than two hours on Tuesday – the third incident of its kind since October.
Analysts have warned that these incidents could strike a blow to the bourse’s credibility, with two previous outages in October and November.
The precise cause or full impact of today’s outages is unclear. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) did not respond to a request for comment.
The impacted small cap stocks initially stopped trading shortly after 9.15am, after which the LSEG said it was “undertaking immediate analysis” over the issue.
It added that as a result of the outage, only FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and IOB securities were available for trading.
Affected shares were back in regular trading by around 10.15am but stopped again just after 11.20am.
The LSEG resolved the second outage, and the small cap stocks resumed regular trading by 12.45pm.
Trading in hundreds of smaller shares was disrupted for some 80 minutes in October, while the FTSE Russell indexes suffered a 40-minute outage in November.
“This is getting beyond a joke now,” David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, told CityAM “The LSE is proving to be its own worst enemy when it comes to providing its customers with the confidence required to carry out business.
“The exchange has been losing out to US and even European competition when trying to attract new listings. The fact that there’s been a repeat of the October outage won’t help its cause.”
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, added: “Software issues do happen, but investors rely on markets to allow them to trade freely during opening hours.
“Confidence is fundamental to the success of global stock markets, and it’s crucial investors get quick answers about what remediation is being put in place to ensure smooth operations going forward.”
Last updated to add commentary, reflect that the second outage has been resolved