The ASX 200 futures market traded overnight, apparently without concerns, after yesterday was lost due to major tech problems at the exchange.
All being well, the local market will start with a small loss – a bit like it was supposed to yesterday before the tech glitches brought trading to a halt.
But it will be a questioning start to today’s session – questioning by traders and brokers who will wonder if yesterday’s still wholly unexplained problems, will impact dealings today.
Thankfully the volatility is yet to come – a breakdown on a day like the previous Monday (when the market lost $34 billion in a 2.2% plunge), could have been disastrous.
Locally the major event today is the release of the September board minutes from the Reserve Bank.
But investors are more concerned with the Bank of Japan tomorrow, and then the results of the Fed meeting early on Thursday morning, our time, before taking a positive stand on the direction of markets.
Share markets in Asia (outside Australia) and Europe notched up small gains overnight, while US markets ended lower. The Dow was up more than 100 points at one stage, but ended with a loss of a 3.6 points, while the S&P 500 was all but steady. Nasdaq was down 0.18%.
Oil was a touch higher on continuing hopes of some sort of production deal by OPEC, and gold rose modestly.
But all that won’t natter if the ASX repeats its glitches for a second day today.
The ASX did close marginally lower yesterday, but the stock movements and turnover data are irrelevant.
For example, ANZ shares jumped 1% for no clear reason, but the other three major banks ended slightly lower. Macquarie shares slipped 0.2%, despite the bank basically endorsing previous first half guidance for earnings around $1 billion.
BHP Billiton shares ended just up, while Rio slipped slightly, but Fortescue jumped 2.7%, again for no real reason.
Yesterday’s stuttering trading session was the most serious glitch for the ASX since the market shut for four hours in October 2011, when it suffered a connectivity problem.
The market also suspended trades for 30 minutes in February, due to a glitch. But it has been a long time when a whole day’s trading was made irrelevant because of the tech problems.
Fairfax Media reported that “The problems meant the system failed to receive orders from stockbrokers, and other market participants, and forced all stocks to list with an “enquire” status until they could sporadically come back online, the longest delay in four years."
Chi-X Australia, a rival stock exchange, was also forced to delay its opening although it was able to deal for most of Monday.
Bonds and futures also trade on the ASX, and their trading was not hit by the problems. Only $169 million worth of trades were recorded for the top 200 stocks, against a 90-day average of around $600 million.
The ASX apologised for the technical problems yesterday evening.
Newish ASX CEO, Dominic Stevens apologised for the disruption which he blamed on a “hardware failure in the main database used by the system” that then had “knock-on consequences”. Yesterday’s events are a big test for him at the start of his new role.
Transactions made within a 43-second window ahead of the delayed start were cancelled and the staggered opening meant the entire market was inaccessible until 1pm and then again shortly after 2pm. The ASX then announced the entire market would close early just after 3.30pm.
