Australia Bourse Says Company Announcement Blackout Resolved

(Bloomberg) — ASX Ltd. said Tuesday that all announcements were processed as expected after a technical outage halted company announcements for hours on Monday, adding to the list of setbacks for the Australian exchange operator.

According to the company’s System Status page posted Tuesday, all price-sensitive announcements made on Dec. 1 were successfully submitted and published. ASX shares fell for a second day, losing as much as 0.9%.

Issuers that submitted non-price-sensitive announcements between 8:49 a.m. and 11:22 a.m. Dec. 1 must confirm that their announcements were published, according to a note on the page. The memo did not provide any details about what caused the outage.

Shares in the ASX have lost nearly 14% this year following a series of technical issues as the exchange’s governance and aging infrastructure came under regulatory scrutiny. The firm expects a loss of up to A$35 million ($22.9 million) in the next financial year from investigation-related costs.

Monday’s outage lasted from 8:59 a.m. to 12:12 p.m., creating a backlog of updates that the exchange was working through throughout the afternoon. Metcash Ltd., which announced its first six-month earnings, was stopped for about four hours after the market opened due to the outage.

Morningstar Inc. “We think today’s failure will likely extend the regulatory review period, otherwise we can expect that scrutiny to gradually taper off from here,” analyst Roy Van Keulen said in a Dec. 1 note. The firm lowered its price target from A$77 to A$73 after the issue, while maintaining its buy rating.

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