Image copyright
Getty Images
A technical problem has forced a halt to all trading on Japan’s stock exchanges, including the popular Nikkei 225 index.
Stock exchanges in Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo all suffered suspended trading on Thursday.
A Japan Exchange Group statement gave no details about the nature of the glitch and didn’t indicate when trading would resume.
The shutdown follows a cyber-attack on New Zealand’s stock exchange in August.
“Trading in all shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange is suspended due to glitches linked to the delivery of market information,” Japan Exchange Group said in a statement.
Tokyo’s roughly $6tn (£4.6tn) stock market is the world’s third largest, after New York and Shanghai, according to data from the World Federation of Exchanges
The problem was the exchange’s first significant glitch since 2018, when a trading system problem left some securities firms unable to make orders.
The Nikkei 225 index includes the shares of many of Japan’s biggest companies including Honda, Nissan, Hitachi and Canon.
Cyber-attacks
Many stock markets have been hit with temporary glitches in the past.
The New Zealand Exchange was hit in August by cyber-attacks that forced it to halt trading over the course of one week.
Over the past decade, the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, the Singapore stock exchange and Bombay’s Sensex have all faced technical glitches that have delayed trading.
In 2017, a temporary market error saw the share price of several major tech firms wrongly listed at the same price on the Nasdaq.
