[2008-06-17]  Technical hitch at NSE delays trading
Trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) started one-hour late following a technical hitch with the computer system.

The latest incident occurs two years after a similar hitch hit the Central Depository System (CDS) delaying trading by two hours.

A statement circulated to all brokerage firms indicated trading at the bourse began at 11am instead of the usual 10am as a result of the system problem.

Mr Chris Mwebesa, the NSE chief executive officer, however, downplayed the problem saying it was ‘nothing alarming.’

"The slight delay in commencement of trading was due to a process re-route," said Mwebesa adding that "the system is now fine and trading was robust."

He said during the start and prior to the commencement of trading, the system’s self check mechanism failed to give a green light to one of the processes.

"This has since been rectified and the automated trading system is now running as usual," explained Mwebesa.

UUNet Internet Service Provider the firm contracted by the NSE to provide Internet and wide area network services to brokerage firms said it had nothing to do with the hitch.

"As far as we are concerned the Internet and WAN services to NSE are working and they were in order today. We use our on-line monitoring tools to check how the links are performing and so far nothing has been reported today," Mr Ken Kareithi, the firm’s marketing manager, told The Standard.







Source: © 2008 Standard Group