The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) remained shut down for the whole day on Thursday, October 1, 2020, because of a hardware failure. As a result, the company halted all the stock trading for the entire day.
Tokyo Stock Exchange shuts down for the first time
The company officially announced on Thursday afternoon that it has suspended trading for the whole day after a technical glitch was found in the system’s hardware. Because of this hardware failure, the company said, “the switchover from the failed device to the backup device did not work properly, and as a result, market information could not be distributed.”
It is the first time in history that the third-largest stock exchange by market volume in the world TSE has shut down due to a technical glitch and remained closed for one day.
TSE said that it apologies for the inconvenience that investors had to face because of this trading halt that occurred due to technical system failure. Furthermore, the official announcement stated that the company is now working on replacing the software. It is taking the necessary steps so that it could make the trading platform completely ready for trading as soon as possible.
As the official announcement post reads:
“TSE is currently planning to replace the hardware and taking steps, including other maintenance, to ensure normal trading from tomorrow onwards. If the system were to reboot during the day, it would cause confusion for investors and market participants, which would make it difficult to execute smooth trading. Therefore TSE has decided to halt all listed symbols entire today after consulting with market participants.TSE sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused to investors and the people related to stock market.”
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato called this suspension occurred in trading on TSE “regrettable” while sharing his view in a press conference. He further added that the exchange and its operator have been given an order by the financial regulator of Japan to discover the real cause behind this glitch.