Dozens of ASX-listed companies have been unable to publish investor updates, including market-sensitive announcements, after an exchange outage.
Metcash, the grocery wholesaler behind the IGA supermarket chain, was the largest company caught up in the disruption, forced to request a trading halt after it was unable to release a presentation on its first-half results while an investor call was under way.
The ASX said it was investigating the issue, which has blocked the publication of announcements since 8.59am. Despite the failure of the announcements platform, trading has continued as normal.
The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column reported that details of at least four equity raisings were circulated to fund managers on Monday morning, without any notice to retail investors that those companies were seeking fresh capital. The ASX said affected stocks would instead be placed in a trading halt when price-sensitive announcements were received.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it was “aware of issues with the ASX market announcement platform”.
ASIC has already commissioned a broad inquiry into the ASX’s governance and operational performance, led by Commonwealth Bank director Rob Whitfield and two others. The review follows a turbulent three years for the exchange, including a major trading settlement outage in December and a failed attempt to upgrade its clearing and settlement system.