SINGAPORE: At first glance, the Straits Times Index’s 30.94 points, or 1 per cent, plunge to 3,138.3 and the data connectivity glitch on Fidelity National Information Services’ (FIS) SunGard systems that disrupted the trading of selected equity traders connected to its system in the morning were the main features of yesterday’s trading.
For many, these would suffice, the index’s loss coming in the wake of last Thursday’s Wall Street selloff that was triggered by heightened geopolitical risk surrounding events in North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria.
The trading holdup upset many dealers, who found themselves unable to trade properly for the first few hours of the session.
Moreover, the Dow futures traded in the red throughout Asian trading hours, compounding jitters here.
With Hong Kong and many markets in Asia closed for Easter, brokers said the local market bore the brunt of the geopolitical-related selling.
Turnover, however, was a low 1.3 billion units worth $746 million because of the closure of Hong Kong and the morning trading disruption.
On the trading glitch, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) said that at 10.40am, it sent a message to brokers that it had been informed by technology provider FIS (formerly SunGard) that FIS was facing securities market data issues and was currently working on resolving the issues.
It added that there were no issues observed at its infrastructure, and securities and derivatives trading were as per normal.
“At about 2.35pm, we sent out a final statement to our members to close the matter: SGX has been informed by FIS that they have resolved the issues pertaining to securities market data. There has been no impact on SGX’s end, and securities and derivatives trading continues as per normal,” said SGX.
