A technical malfunction at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Monday disrupted the release of company announcements for several hours, compounding the exchange's recent operational missteps. The incident has intensified regulatory scrutiny and fueled calls for increased market competition.
The disruption occurred approximately one hour before market open, with the exchange halting announcement releases after 8:59 AM local time. According to ASX's website, its standard announcement window runs from 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM during daylight saving time.
ASX first acknowledged the issue at 9:39 AM, stating it was investigating the technical problem affecting announcement dissemination. While markets opened as scheduled at 10:00 AM, stocks requiring price-sensitive disclosures remained suspended until announcements could be published.
After a three-hour information blackout, announcement services resumed around 12:12 PM. Although the exchange processed submissions received after 11:22 AM, backlogged updates required continued processing throughout the afternoon.
At 4:40 PM (post-market close), ASX confirmed contacting all entities that submitted announcements before 11:22 AM, with affected stocks remaining suspended. The exchange will provide further updates by 8:00 AM Tuesday.
This marks the latest in a series of operational challenges for ASX, including a botched clearing system upgrade that prompted regulatory investigations into governance and risk management practices. CEO Helen Lofthouse faces mounting accountability pressures amid growing competitive threats.
Among impacted stocks, Metcash Ltd. saw trading delayed by approximately four hours due to postponed earnings results. The grocery retailer's shares fell 9.2% after reporting disappointing profits.
The incident follows Friday's 10-hour outage at CME Group Inc, which disrupted global markets by preventing trading of S&P 500-linked contracts and other instruments due to cooling system failures at a Chicago data center.
ASX confirmed Monday's technical issues were unrelated to cyberattacks and didn't affect clearing or settlement processes. The exchange's own shares dropped 2.8%, marking their largest single-day decline since August 7.
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