The SIX Swiss Exchange is investigating Tuesday’s technical glitch that caused the country's worst stock market outage in more than decade.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Bloomberg
The Zurich-based exchange said it will release findings from its investigation in a couple of days.
“It was a technical issue,” said Jürg Schneider, the Swiss exchange’s head of media relations, without giving details about the specific nature of the problem. We can “definitely rule out that it was a hack,” he said, adding that it was the first such disruption since 2012.
Trading in stocks and derivative instruments was interrupted shortly after 11am local time on Tuesday and didn’t resume until 2pm. The fault brought the Swiss Market Index to a grinding halt, affecting trading in some of Europe’s largest companies such as Nestle SA and Roche Holding AG. With the US consumer price inflation data ahead, it caused frustration among traders.
“It felt like it lasted for ages, three hours is a lifetime on a trading day, especially on US CPI day,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank said. “You can’t do anything and that’s frustrating.”
Such technical outages have hit other stock exchanges in recent years from New York to Tokyo. In October 2020, trading in all stocks and derivatives on Euronext NV markets shut down for three hours, the same year the German operator Deutsche Boerse AG was hit by two major outages.
Computer malfunctions triggered wild price swings and trading halts on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year.
The benchmark SMI Index contains the 20 largest and most liquid companies listed on the Swiss stock exchange, including two of Europe’s top five biggest companies by market capitalisation.
Living longer: What do you think about the longevity trend?
The longevity market is booming thanks in part to advances in the science of ageing. What do you think of the idea of significantly extending human lifespan?
Basel prepares 700 volunteers for the Eurovision Song Contest
This content was published on
Around 320 people took part in one of the two official information events for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Basel on Friday.
More Swiss soldiers involved in accidents during training in Austria
This content was published on
The Swiss army has reported various accidents involving Swiss soldiers during the exercise “TRIAS 25” in Austria. Some have led to hospitalisations.
Swiss court rules vegan meat substitutes can’t use animal names
This content was published on
Vegan meat substitutes may not bear animal names such as “planted.chicken” according to a ruling by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
Swiss cantons spared duty to create new traveller transit sites
This content was published on
Swiss cantons will no longer be formally obliged by the government to create new transit sites for the travelling community.
Swiss politicians bemoan limited access to EU treaty details
This content was published on
Protests that only a few Swiss parliamentarians will be able to read the contents of a new agreement negotiated with the EU.
This content was published on
For the first time, most Swiss residents favour withdrawing their pension pot as a lump-sum over regular annuity payments.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Swiss companies hit public listing jackpot
This content was published on
Roger Federer-backed sports shoe company On Group and sports data processor Sportradar both hit the big time in New York.
City of London to bring back Swiss stock trading following EU exit
This content was published on
The post-Brexit UK will bring trading in Swiss shares back to London, marking a split from EU policy on financial services.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.