NSE halts trade, the day that was

Not even an hour into trade at 10:06 am there was confusion across dealing rooms as the headline Index Nifty seemed to have been stuck at a single value and was not updating. It was not long before traders realised there was a systemic problem as the none of the Indices listed across the NSE were updating.

At 11:40 for the second time in the last 5 years the National Stock Exchange halted trade across segment cash and F&O segment citing a technical glitch. 

What followed was just whispers of communication confusion with no official word from the bourse traders speculated what would happen to open positions just a day ahead of expiry. 

3 hours into the trading halt, India’s largest brokerage Zerodha finally decided to layout a gameplan for its users as NSE had still not provided any clarity. The discount broker firm tweeted Plan of action: If NSE isn't back up by 2.45 pm, we will block all new MIS & CO orders for the day and attempt to square off all equity MIS & CO positions on BSE. Unfortunately, we will not be able to do anything with intraday F&O positions if NSE isn't back up

It was just minutes before close that NSE announced that trading hours would be extended by both exchanges from 3:45 upto 5 pm. The message was short and for many almost too late . Zerodha sent out a message to their clients - if NSE had informed brokers of a potential reopening or extension of trading hours, at least by 3 PM, we, along with many other brokers would not have had to take risk mitigation measures and square off positions on BSE. Unfortunately, because there were no updates given to brokers, we had no other choice. The last minute notification of the trading extension at 3:17 PM came a little too late.