PSX to revert to old trading system after technical glitches

• "Once the matters concerning the front-end system are fully resolved, we expect to implement the NTS in a few weeks,” PSX says.
• The stock market says some material issues have been encountered in the Jade Trading Terminal.
• PSX says the IT team and the SZSE technical teams are working with local vendor to address the issues in JTT.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) late Saturday announced the bourse will revert to the old trading system — called Karachi Automated Trading System (KATS) — from Monday, November 1.

The decision comes after several complaints were reported as the newly-acquired Chinese trading system encountered serious technical glitches during the week.

It is pertinent to mention that the new trading system (NTS) — which has been procured from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), China — was officially launched on October 25 and the PSX had held 18 mock sessions before formally launching the new system.

However, on October 27, due to technical issues encountered in the Jade Trading Terminal (JTT) the management had to suspend share trading for around two and a half hours in the middle of the session.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the stock market said that the NTS is a state-of-the-art, robust, advanced trading and surveillance system having readiness for new products and additions. It added that the implementation of such a complex new system is a “monumental task” to ensure that there is no interruption of service to all market participants.

“The SZSE NTS is working exactly as per specifications and is delivering in terms of its trading engine performance in a live environment,” it said, adding, however, some material issues have been encountered in the JTT, which is the front-end Order Management System (OMS)developed by a local vendor upon brokers’ demand.

“In order to address the concerns with JTT, PSX, in consultation with brokers and Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), is reverting to the previous system (KATS) as a short term measure to provide uninterrupted trading for all TREC-Holders,” it said.

The stock market added that the IT team and the SZSE technical teams are working with a local vendor to address the issues in JTT.

“PSX may opt to adopt SZSE’s trading terminal for TREC-Holders and end-users at switchover as a part of NTS and it will initiate and organise marketwide testing before go-live.

“Once the matters concerning the front-end system are fully resolved, we expect to implement the NTS in a few weeks,” the statement read.