Mexico Trading Halt Adds to Series of Glitches on Bourse

Mexican stocks ceased to trade for more than 20 minutes because of what an official called “communication issues,” the latest in a series of glitches to halt activity on Latin America’s second-largest equity exchange.

Shares stopped moving at 2:11 p.m. local time and remained inactive until 2:34 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The benchmark IPC index of 35 Mexican companies ended the day up 1.6 percent, after paring gains from an intraday advance of as much as 1.8 percent.

The problem was “solved fast, but the process of rebooting all the connections takes a little time,” Jorge Alegria, the Mexico City-based head of markets and information at the exchange, said in an e-mailed response to questions. He attributed the stoppage to “communication issues.”

Today’s stoppage marked the latest in a string of technology shortcomings, both at the bourse and at a now defunct brokerage, that have brought Mexican stock trading to a standstill at least three times since April 13. That day, late- day transactions by Bulltick Capital Markets set off a circuit- breaker mechanism that pulled the plug on trading. On May 31, a surge of orders overwhelmed the exchange’s operating system and forced it to pause trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan J. Levin in Mexico City at jlevin20@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net