The Tokyo Stock Exchange resumed normal operations at 9 a.m. on Friday, following a system failure on Thursday that halted trading on the bourse for an entire day.
The rare outage has prompted calls from investors, among others, for an investigation into the cause of the system failure and the implementation of measures to prevent a recurrence.
According to the TSE, part of the equipment that operates the Arrowhead trading system malfunctioned at 7:04 a.m. on Thursday. The system was designed to switch to a backup in the event of a malfunction, but the procedure failed.
The TSE, which has replaced the equipment that caused the outage, announced Friday shortly after 7 a.m. that it would open the stock market as usual.
The Nikkei Stock Average opened higher than Wednesday's close, buoyed by a rise in major stock indexes in New York on Thursday and a possible increase in orders from investors who were unable to buy stocks due to the suspension of Tokyo trading.
The Japanese benchmark later reversed course, closing at 23,029.90, yen down 155.22 yen from Wednesday.
"I expect the impact of the system failure will be limited," said Maki Sawada, equity market strategist at Nomura Securities Co. "[Friday's] trading volume will increase because investors couldn't trade [on Thursday]."
Hirogin Holdings Inc., which owns The Hiroshima Bank Ltd., went public in the first section of the TSE on Thursday and debuted with the initial trading price of 690 yen on Friday morning. "I'm relieved for the time being," a company official said.
Orders placed via the TSE on Thursday have been canceled, according to a major securities company.
"I'm relieved trading has resumed as usual," said a company employee, who was looking at a stock price board in front of Tokyo Station. "I'm not sure if it was necessary to stop trading all day, though."
"I want [the TSE] to do its utmost to prevent a recurrence," a university lecturer from Kyoto said.
Stock exchanges in Sapporo, Nagoya and Fukuoka, all of which use the same system as the TSE, also resumed normal trading on Friday.
The TSE suspended trades for about 3,700 listed stocks, Exchange Traded Funds and other securities due to the system failure on Thursday.
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