Nasdaq Faces Service Disruption Due to Human Error

US stock exchange Nasdaq suffered from another computer glitch that delayed trading in derivative contracts linked to the benchmark Nasdaq 100 index for about 45 minutes on 29 October.

"Global Index Data Service experienced a brief disruption of service and recovered at 12.37 pm EDT. NASDAQ OMX continues to investigate the issue," the parent Nasdaq OMX group said in a statement.

The equity exchange operations and the index calculation system were not affected, according to Nasdaq.

The group said in an update that the glitch was caused by a human error.

"The disruption was caused by a human error performing an operational function which resulted in the incorrect delivery of data to the index distribution system," it said.

Following the glitch, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was monitoring the situation.

"We have been in contact with market participants as is our standard practice and monitoring developments as appropriate," said SEC spokesman John Nester.

Earlier Glitches

This was the latest in a series of embarrassing service disruptions at the stock exchange that specialises in technology shares.

In August, the operations at the exchange were closed for three hours due to a system breakdown. The company said the issue was caused by a glitch in software that publishes the prices of stocks listed on the exchange.

In September, the exchange suffered from a shorter shutdown.

Nasdaq had to pay a penalty of $10m (£6m, €7.3m) to regulators in May to settle charges related to the disruption of Facebook's initial public offering in 2012. The regulators accused Nasdaq's decisions and systems for the issue. The exchange also agreed to pay $62m to investment firms which suffered losses due to the technical issues.

The Nasdaq exchange has been the favourite of tech firms in the US, and majors such as Apple, Google and Facebook are listed there. Furthermore, about 20% of the 500 largest companies traded on Wall Street are listed on Nasdaq.