The bourse had a rude interruption during its morning trade yesterday causing its operator, the Philippine Stock Exchange to suspend operations but the market reopened near the mid-day break.

A technical issue, which the market operator did not elaborate on, prompted the trading halt that lasted for more than two hours.

In an advisory, PSE president and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said the bourse operator has tapped a third-party front-end system provider to continue to investigate the root cause of the problem.

He dispelled suggestions of an intentional attack amid the spate of hacking of different online sites lately.

"It's a technical glitch, definitely not a cyber-attack. We're continuing to work with our front-end platform provider to determine root cause of the glitch. We'll issue a statement once this is completed," Monzon told Daily Tribune.  

Morning break

The PSE Index, also known as PSEi, began trading on Wednesday with a 0.22 percent decrease. However, shortly after trading started, it was halted at 9:32 a.m.

The Exchange resumed trading at 11:56 a.m. The afternoon trading session, on the other hand, took place from 1 to 3 p.m. as scheduled.

Thus, yesterday's weak rally caused the local bourse to drop by 55.16 points or 0.84 percent, closing at 6,498.88.

"Adding to the market's negative sentiment was the slowdown in S&P Global Philippines Manufacturing PM in December. Furthermore, foreign investors contributed to the market's decline, recording an outflow of P262.22 million," Philstocks Financial Inc. assistant manager for research and online engagement Claire Alviar said.

"Market participation remained weak, with the net market value turnover posting at P2.55 billion," she added.

Philippine equities retracted by -0.84 percent following the surge from yesterday's trading, Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director Luis Limlingan said.