Exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group said there will be no further glitches on OMX Nordic Exchange, following two days in which technical difficulties have disrupted trading.
Problems with an upgrade to OMX Nordic Exchange’s Saxess trading platform left exchange members in Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen unable to log-in on Monday morning, causing trading to be delayed by 40 minutes. Yesterday, more than half a day’s trading was lost on OMX Nordic Exchange due to similar access problems. Trading in Oslo was also affected.
A spokesperson for OMX told theTRADEnews.com that the problem was due to “a communications problem between the operating system, software and network”.
Initially, trading was delayed for 40 minutes on Tuesday morning, but failures to address the problem meant that trading did not commence until 14.30. The OMX website posted a total of eleven separate technical difficulties notices throughout the day. OMX said that “all precautions” had been taken on Monday to ensure that the problems would not reoccur, and asserted that “the problems have now been engaged.”
It is estimated that trading volume in Swedish stocks reached SEK 10bn in the three hours in which trading was possible, compared to a average daily volume of around SEK 18bn in May.
There has been no reported delays today and OMX anticipate that the problem is now solved.
Chi-X not an alternative
An equities trader at a large Nordic asset management group told theTRADEnews.com that it did not switch to trading Nordic stocks on Chi-X, the multilateral trading facility (MTF) majority owned by Instinet. “Turnover is too small at the moment, largely because many Swedish brokers are not yet connected. In the future, the picture might be very different,” he said.
According to Martin Nossman, head of trading, equities and structured derivatives, Handelsbanken, the disruption to trading on the Nordic Exchange was a missed opportunity for Chi-X to attract liquidity. “But by September, when there will three or four MTFs up and running, you would expect more liquidity to migrate in similar circumstances,” he said.
Trading in the constituent stocks of the OMX Stockholm 30 index was continuous on Chi-X yesterday, accounting for 3.78% to total traded volume in those stocks.
Chi-X has offered prices on large-cap Swedish stocks since 14 March this year, and blue-chip Finnish stocks since 4 April.
Although the outage caused delays in processing orders for some firms, the disruption to trading was largely greeted in a pragmatic manner on the buy- and sell-side. “It was obvious to us that Swedish brokers had little to do. Five to seven years ago, something like this would have caused outrage, but yesterday – with blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20s over Stockholm – everyone seemed fairly relaxed,” the buy-side trader said.