Trading halted on NSE due to telecommunication link issues
What's the story
Severe technical issues have halted trading on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today. Ongoing issues with the stock index's telecommunications infrastructure have affected the spot NIFTY and Bank NIFTY indexes, which have stopped updating. NSE has issued a tweet clarifying that the disruption has been caused by two of its telecom service providers.
Connectivity issues
Both NSE telecom providers experience disruption in connectivity
The NSE's tickers stopped updating in the morning, prompting the dematerialized stock exchange to close all segments as of 11:40 am today. The downtime is attributed to NSE's telecom providers experiencing connectivity issues with their own links. The exchange tweeted that it is working toward fixing the issues, and the services will resume as soon as the connectivity is restored.
Twitter Post
Here is the tweet by NSE
NSE has multiple telecom links with two service providers to ensure redundancy. We have received communication from both the telecom service providers that there are issues with their links due to which there is an impact on NSE system.
— NSEIndia (@NSEIndia) February 24, 2021
No options
Stocks can be traded in BSE, but F&O trades affected
Despite the disruption, stocks can still be traded in the Bombay Stock Exchange. However, this doesn't apply to futures and options trades on NSE, which continue to be affected by the downtime. Meanwhile, the NIFTY 50 index has been stuck at 14,820 mark, whereas NIFTY Bank is at 35,626.60 points since 10:15 am. NIFTY and NIFTY Bank Future prices, however, are updating normally.
Extended downtime
Update: Trading halted across all segments; Downtime extended further
The NSE just stated that trading has been halted across all market segments, which includes cash/equity, futures, and options. ICICI and other brokerage houses have issued notifications that NSE cash and derivatives markets won't be resuming at 1:15 pm as notified earlier. Meanwhile, all open orders will be canceled to prevent them from auto-executing at different prices once the market resumes operations.