Glitch at National Securities Depository delays some trade settlements

By Alex Gabriel Simon and Ashutosh Joshi

 

Some customers with accounts at the National Securities Depository Ltd., India’s second-largest depository, faced delays in the settlement of trades executed earlier this week due to a technical disruption.

 

The credit of shares bought on Tuesday and Wednesday is still pending because of issues in inter-depository functions, according to a notice dated Thursday sent by brokerage Nirmal Bang Securities Ltd. to its clients and seen by Bloomberg. The Mumbai-based broker did not immediately respond to an email asking for a comment.

 

Separately, some customers and brokers said that trades executed on Wednesday have yet to reflect in their accounts, according to people familiar with the matter. 

 

 

Typically, depositories credit shares to buyers’ accounts by 10:30 a.m. local time on the day following the trade, according to NSE Clearing Ltd.’s website. In the case of sell transactions, shares are debited by 3:30 p.m. the following day. 

 

NSDL’s Chief Executive Officer Vijay Chandok said the company has activated back-up servers and bulk of the issues are getting resolved. “Its just a matter of a few minutes before systems are fully functional,” he said in response to a query from Bloomberg. 

 

Separately, the depository acknowledged on Wednesday that it had experienced a technical snag, resulting in a brief disruption of some of its services. NSDL shares traded 1.4 per cent lower at 1:46 pm local time. 

 

India’s $5.2 trillion stock market has a history of technical disruptions affecting various aspects of trading. In 2021, the country’s largest bourse, the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., faced a glitch that halted trading for hours, marking the longest disruption in its history.