The Nigerian Stock Exchange disclosed that a market-wide circuit breaker kicked on Thursday, November 12, 2020, at exactly 12:55 PM, when the NSE All-Share Index (NSE ASI) rose beyond the set threshold of 5%.
This disclosure was made by the Nigerian Stock Exchange in a newsletter which was made available on its website.
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Why this matters
The Circuit Breaker protocol was triggered by the excessive gains today, as NSE ASI rose from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39, due to massive buying pressures on the bourse, which triggered a 30-minute trading halt of all stocks.
The market reopened at exactly 1:25 PM with a 10-minute intraday auction session, before resuming continuous trading till the close of the day at 2:30p.m
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This protocol provided a necessary break for market participants to incorporate and analyze the latest events in a bid to ward-off market-wide speculative trading and ensure rational trading decisions.
However, this was the first time that the circuit breaker had kicked in since its introduction in 2016. During the halt of trading, no order could be placed until trading resumed.
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However, existing orders could be withdrawn or canceled but could not be modified. Trading halts did not affect the clearing, settlement, and depository operations for matched trades, as these functioned as normal.
Furthermore, all existing orders keyed in prior to the trading halt and were re-activated and matched upon resumption of trading.
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Yes, it is good to know that local fund managers and investors are taking control of stock trading on the Nigerian stock exchange. We shouldn’t wait for foreign investors to develop our bourse for us, because they won’t, as their hot money is so unstable. Now, the SEC and other regulatory agencies need to be up and doing maintain the integrity of the market and prevent any corporate abuses etc.