TheCable

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday triggered the circuit breaker protocol at 12:55pm, when the all share index (ASI) — the gauge measuring the performance of listed stocks — rose beyond the set threshold of 5 percent.

The spike in ASI forced the trading to halt for 30 minutes — this is the first time that a circuit breaker protocol was triggered since its introduction in 2016.

The circuit breaker protocol was triggered by the increase of the NSE ASI from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39.

The market reopened at exactly 1:25pm with a 10-minute intraday auction session, before resuming continuous trading till the close of the day at 2:30pm.

During the halt of trading, no order was placed until trading resumed, while existing orders were withdrawn or cancelled but not modified.

Trading halt did not affect the clearing, settlement, and depository operations for matched trades, as these functioned as normal.

All existing orders keyed in prior to the trading halt were re-activated and were matched upon resumption of trading.

Local investors have continued to flock to the stock market in search of returns as yields on government debt tanked after a surprise September rate cut by the monetary policy committee (MPC).