Techno glitches cost market 90 minutes

By Chris Barton

The New Zealand Stock Exchange's new $3.5 million automated trading system suffered teething problems yesterday morning, delaying the market's opening by 90 minutes.

NZSE information systems manager Wayne Zander said an application fault caused a display problem with prices, but was quickly rectified by the installation contractor Chelmer.

The new "state of the art platform" from Computershare, which replaces the NZSE's aging and non-Y2K compliant Seats trading system, went live last Friday.

Chelmer director Andy Robertson said some changes to the system requested by brokers which had been implemented overnight created a minor problem with closing prices. A software fix was then applied and electronically deployed to brokers' workstations.

Broker James Snell of CS First Boston said the closing of the exchange had little effect on trading because it occurred in the morning before the Australian exchange had opened. He said the Windows-based system took a little while to get used to, but had been working well until the glitch.

The new computer system also paves the way for brokers to route orders placed over the internet straight through to the exchange - opening up the market to United States-based low margin web brokers such as E*Trade and Charles Schwab.

NZSE chairman Eion Edgar said the NZSE had put off introducing automated share dealing over the internet until it got through Y2K, but he expected net-based trading in the first quarter of next year.

"It will encourage a more active market allowing more people to participate."