 "Sebi seeks details after MCX hit by four-hour outage, probe underway")
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought details from the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) that faced a four-hour trading disruption, said sources.
On Tuesday, the country’s largest commodities bourse was hit by a technical glitch, rekindling concerns among market participants about its trading infrastructure.
“Due to a technical issue at the exchange, the commencement of trading on Tuesday, October 28 was delayed. Operations were shifted to the Disaster Recovery (DR) site, and trading resumed at 1:25 pm. All trading systems are now functioning normally,” MCX said in a statement.
The exchange has launched an internal investigation into the cause of the issue. Several market participants,
however, complained that trading could not be carried out even through the DR site.
MCX shares fell 2 per cent on Tuesday to close at ₹9,117 apiece.
The sources added that the market regulator also questioned senior officials from the exchange about the glitch. Emailed queries to Sebi remained unanswered until press time.
“Such technical issues deteriorate trust in the ecosystem. It is pertinent that the confidence is restored amongst the market participants. MCX must work on the infrastructure so that such an outage does not occur again,” said Rakesh Kumar Jain, president, Commodity Participants Association of India.
The association is scheduled to meet the MCX chairperson on Friday to discuss the recurring outages.
According to the sources, the latest issues were due to a database problem, and an investigative report from the exchange is expected to be submitted to Sebi by Wednesday.
Experts said Sebi seeks a report from the exchange if the delay is of over 45 minutes. The regulator may also consider financial disincentives if the lapse is found significant, particularly for interruptions lasting beyond 75 minutes, they added.
“We are committed to identifying the cause and implementing corrective measures. Updates on our findings and subsequent actions will be shared in due course,” MCX said.
This is not the first time MCX has faced such an incident. In July, it reported an hour-long delay in opening trade, citing a repeated database issue that disrupted overnight clearing processes. In February 2024, a similar outage lasting over four hours occurred due to slow backend file processing for member systems.
Repeated technical glitches have unsettled brokers and market participants, prompting calls for regulatory intervention.
“MCX has seen multiple technical issues — three to four incidents in the past few months alone — raising serious concerns about the stability and reliability of its trading infrastructure,” said Narinder Wadhwa, managing director at SKI Capital.
“Given that TCS, MCX’s key technology vendor, has the expertise to deploy globally benchmarked exchange solutions, it is imperative that MCX adopt a more resilient architecture,” he added.
Market participants have urged the exchange to undertake structural technology upgrades to restore confidence and ensure uninterrupted market functioning.