PSX trading halted by fire, SECP takes notice

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) suspended trading for two hours on Monday due to a fire that broke out in a broker’s office in the old building housing the brokerage firms.

However, according to a PSX press release, there was no risk or damage to the PSX office building, trading systems, servers and connectivity at the exchange. The fire was brought under control with limited damage to property being witnessed in a part of the broker building.

While the entire trading system and network remained fully intact, many firms reported not being able to fully operate due to restrictions on accessing the affected premises.

The market was halted for two hours from 10:25am until 12:25pm for brokers to connect and switch over to DR systems and initiate BCP processes.

The press release further said that the Pakistan Stock Exchange is fully cognizant of its responsibility as the national stock exchange of the country and restored the trading session in the due course. Trading took place smoothly for the remaining part of the trading day from 12:25pm.

Amidst the fire threat, the PSX exercised high-security alert and caution whereby no one was allowed to enter the main compound of the building except essential personnel, firefighters and fire-fighting crew.

Given the high-security measures taken by the PSX whereby in the past the exchange faced terrorism threats as well, non-essential persons were not allowed inside the main compound as this might have caused distraction in the firefighting process. The PSX apologized for this restriction. However, given the sensitivity of the situation, these restrictions were enforced to avoid occurrence of any untoward incident.

SECP takes notice of the incident

During the incident, there was reportedly the mishandling of a journalist by the PSX management, and it was complained by journalists’ organizations as well.

Taking urgent notice of the situation, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan sought a report on the complaint of the mishandling of media persons and directed the PSX to adopt SOPs for media handling during crisis situations.

The SECP also sought details of the fire incident from the PSX, including causes and details of losses and details of the duration of suspension of trading and directed to ensure smooth operations.