NSE trading abruptly stopped on April Fool’s Day

All fool’s day traditionally ends at 12noon, but trading at  Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) did not end as per tradition on April 1 after a technical hitch halted activity.

In a public notice from the NSE at around 2pm on April Fool’s Day, connectivity issues was singled out as cause of the trading activity blackout.

“The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) wishes to notify market participants, investors and the general public that trading activities are currently unavailable due to technical challenges occasioned by the unavailability of connectivity to the Central Depository System (CDS),” the NSE said.

Affected business included core services such as trading of equities and bonds.

The bourse added, “Our technical teams are working closely with the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC) towards resolving the issue in the shortest time possible and the market will be duly notified when services have been restored.”

This is the second time this year that the bourse is suffering as a result of a technical hitch, having similarly succumbed to a system fault on January 8.

On that day, the securities exchange managed 395 deals, amounting to movement of 5.6 million shares on an equity turnover of Ksh154 million.

If results posted on April 1 are anywhere near the figures of January 8, then the NSE will have taken a massive plummet in trading activity as against the previous trading session.

During the last public listed market activity on March 29, the bourse had posted an equity turnover of Ksh664 million on the back of 1,082 deals completed. The volume of shares moved on Friday was 18.6 million.

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