London market resumes trading after hitch
Thursday, 26 November 2009 14:28The London Stock Exchange resumed trading this afternoon after a technical hitch had put it out of action for three and a half hours.
The LSE began trading again at 2pm after earlier announcing that 'technical difficulties' had forced its temporary closure.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 1.84% at 5,266 points on the resumption of trading.
World stock markets fell sharply today owing to anxiety over a request by Dubai to delay payment of part of its debt.
Today's technical hitch affected more than 2,800 companies whose shares are traded on the LSE. During October an average £5 billion sterling worth of shares were traded on the exchange every day.
In September last year, City traders were also left powerless when a computer crash paralysed the market for seven hours during what should have been one of its busiest sessions of the year.
The stoppage - the longest in more than eight years - meant investors were unable to cash in on a stock market boom triggered by the US government's bail-out of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the financial crisis struck just days later.
Today's problems come just a day after the LSE reported a 38% fall in pre-tax profits to £79.4m for the six months to September. The company is facing lower share trading volumes as well as increasing competition from the likes of rival trading platforms Chi-X and Turquoise.
