MANILA -- The Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday rolled out a new trading system that quickly plunged the market into disarray with wildly wrong data.
It took the bourse more than three hours after the close of trading to issue the correct figure for the benchmark index, after officials told investors to disregard the whooping 14 percent gain erroneously calculated by the new system.
The stock exchange advised traders in a statement "to disregard a glitch in the index values and market statistics affecting market data feed, the electronic board and the PSE website" while they looked into the problem. Trading was not suspended.
The stock exchange said the index fell 2.07 points or 0.1 percent to 3,414.03 in an advisory posted on its website and in an e-mail to the media more than three hours after trading closed Monday.
The exchange replaced the MakTrade system it had been using since 1993 with the New Trading System or NTS. It uses the trading software product developed by NYSE Technologies SAS, the commercial technology unit of NYSE Euronext, which in turn operates the largest exchanges around the world including the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext.
"Like any new technology system, the PSE's migration to NTS had its birth pains and glitches which were deemed minor by the NTS project team," said the bourse's Chief Operating Officer Val Antonio B. Suarez.
Many investors complained. EquitiWorld Securities Inc. assistant marketing manager Genalyn Lim said the confusion "appears to have dampened trading."
The new application was designed to trade a wide range of cash, debt and derivative instruments not possible through the previous trading system. The new system is also expected to improve the capacity of the bourse to handle any future sharp increase in its turnover. (Sunnex)