High Trading Volume Forces NSE To Pause Trade For 30 Minutes

…Index Rose Above 5% Approved Benchmark

The high Trading Volume on the Nigerian Stock Exchange forced the management of the Exchange to pause trade for 30 minutes.

During trading on Thursday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange called for a first circuit breaker in four years after the benchmark index rose above the five per cent threshold on Thursday.

The index rose from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39 points on Thursday, THE WHISTLER observed.

The circuit breaker lasted 30-minute as  trading of all stocks were suspended on the local bourse.

“This was the first time that the circuit breaker had kicked in since its introduction in 2016,” said NSE.

The Circuit Breaker protocol which was triggered by the increase of the NSE All-Share-Index from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39  was aimed at preventing the market from volatile trading activities.

THE WHISTLER also observed that market re-opened by 1:25pm with a 10-minute intra-day auction session, before resuming continuous trading till the close of the daily trade at 2:30pm.

But by 1:50pm, the index rose further to 35,175.27points, after re-opening trades.

Africa’s second largest bourse said, “existing orders could be withdrawn or canceled but could not be modified.

“Trading halts did not affect the clearing, settlement, and depository operations for matched trades, as these functioned as normal.

“Furthermore, all existing orders keyed in prior to the trading halt were re-activated and were matched upon resumption of trading.”

The NSE had since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic experience weak investors sentiment with the index falling as low as 22,094.95 points in April.