London equities trading opens one hour late after 'technical issue'

Some traders were left frustrated by the delayed open and said market operators should have better back-up plans in place

The London Stock Exchange Group Plc said a software issue was to blame for a one-hour delay to its opening auction on Thursday, the first major outage of its kind in seven years.
 
Regular trading on LSE commenced at 9 am UK time after the opening auction was postponed due to a “technical software issue” that has been resolved, the exchange said. The 217-year-old bourse operates one of Europe’s largest cash equity markets. LSE’s main equity market and Alternative Investment Market were among those affected.

“To preserve the integrity of the market and to ensure orderly trading, LSE