Major technical glitch disrupts DSE trading

A technical glitch disrupted trading activities on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) again Sunday, and forced the authorities to reduce the trading hours to one hour and 40 minutes instead of four hours.
Trading at the DSE that usually takes place between 10:30am and 2:30pm, started at 2:20pm and continued until 4:00pm.
The trading which was bullish during the last four days of the last week closed flat during the reduced trading time of Sunday with the DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, gaining only 1.3 points. The index went up to 4,484.62 points.
The securities regulator - Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), asked the bourse to immediately submit a detailed report on the technical trouble.
Yesterday's technical trouble was the first major one since the installation of the new trading platform in December last year. Earlier on April 13 last year a technical glitch had halted trading for more than two and a half hours.
Swapan Kumar Bala, managing director of DSE, said, the technical problem surfaced at around 9:30am while they were taking preparation to open day's trading.
He said at least 70 brokerage houses have to log-in DSE trading server out of 232 active brokerage firms to start trading. But it failed to fulfil the quorum within the stipulated timeframe following a technical problem in the DSE server.
"So, we decided to suspend trading and consulted our international technology partners in Singapore, India and Paris and they did help to resolve the problem," said Mr Bala.
"Due to the technical problem, the Dhaka Stock Exchange delayed commencement of trade by 3 hours 50 minutes on 24 May," said a statement of the DSE.
DSE and its international technology partners worked in three jurisdictions to resolve this issue and to open trading facility as soon as possible. The combined effort of all those involved has resulted in starting the transactions at 2:20pm for all brokers, albeit for a truncated trading session of 1 hour 40 minutes, said the DSE statement.    
Meanwhile, the post of chief technology officer (CTO) at the DSE has been vacant for around five months.
DSE launched the new trading platform on December 11, last year to get rid of repeated technical glitches, particularly on occasions of some debut stocks with huge trade volume, with a cost of Tk 350 million.
NASDAQ OMX, the world's largest exchange company based in the US, provided the main part-matching engine-while FlexTrade Systems provided the order management system at the brokers' end.
The trading engine TESA and trading terminal MSA Plus was replaced by FlexTrade Systems developed by the US-based world's largest exchange company NASDAQ OMX.
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