Unspecified “technical difficulties” on Thursday morning halted trading for various futures and options products on the Australian Stock Exchange ahead of key employment data.
The market operator at 10am AEDT announced the ASX24 platform had been placed into a halt while it investigated an “issue affecting the trading system”.
An update at 11.36am revealed the system was still down.
The ASX said all trades made after 9.43am will be investigated.
The glitch came ahead of potentially market-moving jobs data for February, which showed Australia’s unemployment had shrunk to a 14-year low 4 per cent.
The outage is the latest in a series of technical issues that have afflicted Australia’s biggest stock market over the past couple of years as it moves to transition away from its old settlement system.
Just over a year ago the ASX 200 was forced to close for the day after it activated an upgrade that was not ready to go live.
This event triggered a series of reviews into the ASX and its operations.
The ASX24 is different from the ASX200 in that it allows investors to trade futures and options for equities, agriculture, energy and interest rates as opposed to shares in companies.
The ASX 200 remained active and was last 1.2 per cent ahead as risk appetite boomed.
Today is also a crucial day for investors given the first US interest rate hike since the onset of the pandemic was delivered overnight.
The ASX said it will give investors 20 minutes notice when a decision to shift the ASX24 to a 10 mxjmtzywinute pre-open status.
