Press releases 2000

5 April 2000

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE MARKET ANNOUNCEMENT

Following the technical problem that prevented the London stock market from opening this morning, Gavin Casey, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange, said:

"The market opened at 3.45 p.m. this afternoon after a thorough investigation into the fault in the network that takes real-time price and other information from the central trading systems to our market users.

"In order to enable investors to undertake their business, trading hours this evening have been extended to 6.30 p.m.

"We very much regret the disruption that market users have experienced during the course of the day. As a result of today's breakdown, extensive work is being undertaken not only to ensure that the immediate problem has been resolved satisfactorily, but also to take whatever additional steps are required to ensure that the system is robust and reliable for the future."