A Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing.executive who was unwilling to be named denied that there was a delay, saying that there had never been a launch date in the first place. This unnamed executive admitted that there had been problems in the past seven tests of the system: 'We have found some problems in the rehearsals so we need to fix them and need to have more tests to the system, to ensure the system would be launched smoothly.'

Its launch is an important step forward for the local market as it would support the development of online trading. When it is eventually implemented investors will be able to use their personal computers or mobile phones to place orders via the Internet - their orders will go through brokers' gateways to the system so that brokers can ensure investors have sufficient funds or shares to settle the deals.

Last month, the Exchange said that if this month's seven rehearsals to test the system under normal and high volume traffic went well it would like to launch the new system soon. The executive said the system performed well under stress and could handle 1.4 million transactions per day, compared with the present daily turnover of about 200,000.

The technical problems are apparently related to a slow system response during traders' bulk order cancellations and in updating market data for brokers using the multi-workstation system.

Brokers have said that a delay of the launch of AMS/3 would weaken the market's competitiveness. Hong Kong already lags behind the US, Europe and some Asian countries such as South Korea.