NSE NOW services were inoperative for 2 market hours

The National Stock Exchange's NOW service was shut down for more than two market hours on February 3.

Brokers who use the stock exchange's 'NOW' facilities were not able to trade or refresh stock prices with this software from around 11.35 to 13.35 during market hours.

A broker who uses NOW told Moneycontrol, "We are not able to trade in market for atleast two hours. Today is an important trading day since the market was so volatile over the Budget announcements."

Another market source told Moneycontrol, "There were some problems in the Risk Management Server, which shut down the NOW services for almost two hours. Some brokers that had already logged in were able to trade, but others were not able to login in on the exchange."

The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) has already expressed its ire with the technology before, and SEBI's Chairman had confirmed in press conference that it had sought a report based on its last incident on November 19 and November 20 of last year. SEBI had also called for a personal appearance of the NSE management, and sought clarification on the matter.

The NSE has faced many issues in its technology services in the last couple of days. SEBI had planned to take up the matter in a SEBI-appointed Technical advisory committee.

Many brokers' forums had also flagged instances of the shutdown of this service earlier.