[2008-10-09]  NSE trading halted for 15 minutes as key index drops
The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday halted the continous trading session for 15 minutes after the Index dropped by more than five per cent, violating the trading rules.

The NSE 20 Share Index plunged to 3,965.41 points from 4,090.69 points at the close of the session Tuesday, forcing the trading session to be temporarily stopped between 2:40pm and 2:55pm.

"The market halt was done in accordance with the NSE Trading Rules clause 9.4.1,"Mr Chris Mwebesa, the bourse chief executive officer said. According to the NSE rules, the market can be halted by the exchange during the pre-opening and continuous trading session.

OPENING SESSION

This occurs when the Index decreases by more than five per cent at the opening session compared to its closing value or during the continuous session compared to its opening value. The halt will however not be for more than 15 minutes. "This drop in index value is not a situation peculiar to the Nairobi

Stock Exchange, but a global phenomenon in both the developing and emerging markets," Mwebesa said in a statement, yesterday.

All major world markets fell yesterday with London FTSE 100 index and China’s CSI 300 Index shedding 6.8 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively. Tokyo’s Nikkei Index lost more than nine per cent of its value. European markets fell, however, and then recouped most of their losses after six central banks jolted markets by cutting interest rates together in an attempt to shore up confidence in the world’s crisis-stricken financial system.

FOREIGN MARKETS suffer

The move by banks including the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank helped stock markets around the world rally off lows earlier on a day that saw Japan’s Nikkei showing its biggest drop since the October, 1987 stock market crash.

It was the first coordinated interest rate reduction since one made in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Mwebesa, however, said Kenya’s bourse remained robust and the market fundamentals remained solid.

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Source: THE STANDARD