PSX Issues Closing Sheet After Several Hours Due to Errors in New Trading Platform

The administration of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) issued the closing sheet on Monday more than 7 hours after the market’s official closing time. The unprecedented development occurred on the day PSX officially launched the multi-million dollar trading and surveillance platform procured from China called Designated Time Schedule (DTS). According to details, PSX closes at 4 PM on weekdays and issues the closing sheet soon after the official closing time. However, on Monday, the closing sheet was issued at 11:39 PM due to technical problems in the DTS. PSX had procured DTS from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) for $2.85 million. The procurement was intended to increase security against data leakages and theft attempts, safeguard the data of the investors and integrate the national market with regional and international stock markets. However, investors lost millions of rupees due to the technical glitches in the newly acquired DTS. PSX’s IT teams worked hard to remove errors from the DTS and issue the closing sheet at the earliest. It took them over 7 hours to address the errors and issue the closing sheet. The DTS displayed incorrect numbers of future closing rates. It also showed different closing numbers of the stock market at different times. For instance, the DTS showed the closing of the 100-index at 45,429 points initially. It showed the closing of the 100-index at 45,418 and 45,419 on two separate occasions. Credible sources in the PSX administration have claimed that senior management of the PSX ignored several guidelines of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) regarding the introduction of the DTS in the PSX. While the SECP had directed the PSX administration to conduct two mock error-free sessions before making the DTS officially operational, PSX held 19 mock sessions before officially launching the DTS. Unfortunately, none of the mock sessions held by the PSX was error-free. Investors, traders, and brokers have accused the PSX administration of launching the DTS in haste and without doing its homework.