The Australian Securities Exchange has been forced to shut down completely after a software issue on its refreshed ASX Trade system created inaccurate market data.
The technical issue coincided with the launch date for the upgraded ASX Trade system, which is provided by US exchange group Nasdaq.
The system had gone through extensive testing over the last 12 months, including four dress rehearsals, by the ASX, customers, third parties, and Nasdaq.
At 10:17am local time on 16 November, ASX said it was investigating reported issues with market data relating partition three securities. It later confirmed that the market had been paused with updates to follow.
Just after 4 pm, the exchange announced that the market would not reopen on 16 November due to the software issue connected to the trading of multiple securities in a single order which caused inaccurate market data.
The exchange said it was working with its technology provider Nasdaq and that they had identified the root cause and a solution. The market is expected to reopen at 10am on 17 November.
“ASX is very disappointed with today’s outage and sorry for the disruption caused to investors, customers, and other market users,” said Dominic Stevens, ASX managing director, and chief executive. “The outage falls short of the high standards we set ourselves and the standards others expect of us. Notwithstanding the extensive testing and rehearsals, and the involvement of our technology provider, ASX accepts responsibility.”
“The obligation to get this right and provide a reliable and resilient trading system for the market rests with us. While I am disappointed with today’s outage, we are determined to continue our program of contemporising ASX’s technology stack from top to bottom. This initiative is critical to ASX building an exchange for the future and ensuring we best serve the needs of our customers and the Australian market.”
The news follows a series of exchange failures this year, which have caused mass disruption to trading for investors. Most recently, a significant technical issue at European exchange operator Euronext saw a market outage which also impacted the market close.
Earlier in October, the Tokyo Stock Exchange also saw its trading halted completely following a major hardware malfunction on its cash equities system arrowhead.