NSE triggers circuit breaker to guard against sharp market fluctuations

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has announced that a market-wide circuit breaker kicked in today, Thursday, November 12, 2020, at 12:55p.m. when the NSE All-Share Index (NSE ASI) rose beyond the set threshold of 5 per cent, triggering a 30-minute trading halt of all stocks. This was the first time that the circuit breaker had kicked in since its introduction in 2016.

The Circuit Breaker protocol was triggered by the increase of the NSE ASI from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39. The market reopened at exactly 1:25p.m. with a 10-minute intraday auction session, before resuming continuous trading till the close of the day at 2:30p.m.

During the halt of trading, no order could be placed until trading resumed. However, existing orders could be withdrawn or cancelled​ but could not be modified. Trading halts did not affect the clearing, settlement, and depository operations for matched trades, as these functioned as normal. Furthermore, all existing orders keyed in prior to the trading halt were re-activated and were matched upon resumption of trading.