It's back to business on Bursa
THANKS to bargain hunters, the share market managed to end yesterday just 1.7 per cent lower, after an embarrassing system failure forced trading to be suspended the whole of Thursday.

The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index slumped 2.2 per cent when trading resumed in the morning, but gained ground to close at 1,134.14, down 19.56 points from Wednesday.

During a press conference yesterday, Bursa Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Yusli Mohamed Yusof said the exchange was caught off-guard by a partial failure in its system as its back-up was planned for a total disaster.

Although investors could not trade stocks, the derivatives and bond markets were not affected.

Bursa Malaysia had also underestimated the amount of time needed to transfer from its primary site to the back-up site, Yusli said. This explained why trading did not resume on Thursday afternoon as earlier announced by the exchange.

Steps will be taken to strengthen its trading system, he added.

As the chief of the exchange, Yusli said he would take full responsibility for the incident and that it was the board's decision whether to renew contracts of the senior management.

The decline yesterday was less than what many had expected. Dealers had generally predicted at least a five per cent fall, while others were even expecting the circuit-breaker to go into action in the event the slide exceeded 10 per cent.

"I think some segment of investors, foreigners included, are now willing to see through the current short-term uncertainties," Singular Asset Management Sdn Bhd managing director Teoh Kok Lin said.

Both domestic and external developments also turned slightly less bearish yesterday. It was a contrast compared to the day before Bursa Malaysia's suspension.

Investor sentiment was very negative on Thursday, affected by the plunge in the US and regional markets and weighed down further by political concerns on the home front.

Yusli said the exchange had not received any official complaints from investors in the wake of the technical glitches.

"No one called me. They were probably happy that the system was running today and trading had gone back to usual," he said.

Among other things, Yusli said, the exchange is exploring the possibility of an automatic start-up for its back-up trading system in the event of partial or single-point failure.

While maintaining that technical glitches are common among exchanges in the world, he could not pin-point which bourse has experienced such a major system failure.

Yusli also said that the best way for Bursa Malaysia to repair its battered image after the episode was to ensure its system was up and running every day from now on.

The episode will not make it more difficult for Malaysia to attract overseas share investors, he said.

"If our system breaks down over and over again, then yes. We are confident that the system will be stable. There are other things that investors look at. Malaysian shares offer very good value now," he said.