After Hong Kong's futures and options trading platform failed on Thursday, leading to an overnight suspension of the market, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing chairman Charles Lee Yeh-kwong yesterday apologised to investors, but denied that Hong Kong's trading system was not as good as that used in Shanghai.
"I would like to apologise to investors for any inconvenience caused due to the suspension of futures trading," Mr Lee said. "It is important for the HKEx to make sure that such a problem does not happen again. It is vital to keep the trading system working smoothly so Hong Kong fulfils its role as an international financial centre," he said. Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung had contacted him to express the Government's concern, he said.
Mr Lee said the priority for the exchange now was to find out what caused the problem; he had appointed an independent electrical and mechanical consultant, Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong, to review the incident.
On Thursday, a construction worker sliced through an armoured cable, causing a split second of lower voltage before emergency power systems cut in and bringing down the trading system at 3.12 pm. It was back up by 4 pm, but Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing decided not to reopen the market, lacking the requisite 30 minutes' notice of market opening - the market normally closes at 4.15 pm.
Investors were forced to hold positions overnight for the second time in six months. Luckily it was a slow trading day, with US markets closed for Memorial Day and the Hang Seng very quiet as a result. When a similar outage took place last December on a busy Friday, investors had to hold their positions over the weekend.
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