Technical Glitch Takes down TSX

CFRA News Staff
Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Investors trying to buy or sell shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange were out of luck on Wednesday.

Both failed to open at 9:30 a.m. E.T. and it isn’t clear when the problem will be fixed, and trading will resume.

Market spokeswoman Caroline Quick says only that it’s a technical issue, but did not elaborate.

The outage followed a 262-point jump in the main TSX index. That jump was sparked by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s cut in its key policy interest rate.

For professional traders it was a frustrating day. Paul Thornton, president and portfolio manager at Global Maximum Power, said there were already a lot of reasons not to invest in stocks and ‘when the exchange cannot open and give you a quote that is just another one.’