London Stock Exchange closed for trading on computer fault

The London Stock Exchange - the world’s second largest stock exchange - has been closed to trading for almost two hours after a computer fault hit trading systems.

Trading began to offline at 08.44 after a hectic but positive start to morning trading, with connectivity finally lost at 09:15.

At present, no buy or sell executions can be made, and no details on the nature of the fault as been provided.

However, according to a report in The Telegraph, the LSE has announced that trading will resume in a controlled manner once the fault has been rectified.

Monday trading showed a lot of positive activity, with the FTSE 100 up 3.81% in the first 44 minutes of trading.

Investor confidence was buoyed by the US governments effective nationalisation of Fannae Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), in order to protect mortgage debt.

The move is seen as helping to free up credit markets by providing improved confidence in the commercial markets.

While FNM and FRE had both showed 60% increase in share prices since lows two weeks ago, massive Asian debt investors had been withdrawing from sales of FNM and FRE debt.

Continuing weakening of confidence in the mortgage debt offered by both companies could have had a far more severe impact on financial markets around the globe.

However, while shares rallied on Asian exchanges, UK investors are having to look for alternative exchanges to the LSE to execute trades this morning.

So far no timescale has been given for the resumption of normal trading on the LSE.

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