The Tokyo Stock Exchange was forced to suspend derivatives trading for several hours today due to a computer system glitch, the latest in a series of technical problems at Asia's largest bourse.
Traders said the problems had little impact on regular stock trading, but they voiced concern that they might add to investor concerns about the quality of the exchange's computer system.
Trading in stock index futures and options, as well as government bond futures and options, was suspended from 9:21am until 1:45pm (Tokyo time) , a spokesman for the bourse said.
The TSE said it had updated computer software over the weekend and found a glitch about an hour before the opening bell.
The cause was believed to be a programming mistake by computer giant Fujitsu, which provided the software, said Yoshinori Suzuki, a TSE managing director in charge of the computer system. Seeking compensation from Fujitsu was one option, he said, while acknowledging that the bourse was also partly responsible.
The incident did not disrupt regular trading in listed shares, which uses a completely different system.
The exchange has been hit by a number of computer system problems in recent years, including a similar halt to futures trading in February that prompted top TSE executives to take a pay cut for one month as punishment.
In November 2005 the Tokyo bourse was forced to suspend trading in all shares for the first time ever because of a software problem. Since then the Tokyo bourse has been devoting resources to improve technology as it competes with rival markets in China and Singapore.
