Friday the 13th proved to be bad luck for the Tokyo stock market, which saw the latest in a series of mishaps.
The Japanese investment banker Daiwa Securities SMBC mistakenly placed a sell order for 25 000 shares of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial instead of another firm after an employee interchanged the names.
Daiwa noticed the mistake six minutes after the order was made, but only after 13 417 shares of the Tokyo-based bank had been sold for 1,13-million yen each ($9 908).
Daiwa was able to buy back most of the stock before trading closed for the week, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial’s stock, which had been down as much as 4,3% during the day’s trading, closed 10 000 yen higher at 1,18-million yen.
The buybacks will cost Daiwa Securities SMBC an estimated 500-million yen ($4,38-million).
The mistake was the latest in a series of transaction errors on the world’s second-largest stock market.
This month also saw Nikko Citigroup, a joint venture between Japan’s Nikko Cordial and United States-based Citigroup, mistakenly place a buy order for 2 000 shares of Nippon Paper when it meant to buy two.
A more serious incident occurred at the beginning of December when the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s computer system failed to cancel a sales order from Mizuho Securities for stock in the employment firm J-Com. The order was for the sale of 610 000 J Com shares for one yen each instead of the intended single share of J-Com for 610 000 yen.
The mistake cost Mizuho Securities about 40-billion yen.
In November, the exchange experienced the worst disruption in its 56-year history when computer problems caused trading to halt for half a day. The problems cost the exchange’s president his job. — Sapa-dpa