Nairobi Stock Exchange to automate bond market

The Nairobi Stock Exchange is pushing ahead with the automation of the bond market, despite hitches with the system at the bourse.

The NSE is looking at the possibility of linking the automated trading system to the Central Bank of Kenya's central depository system, according to NSE CEO Chris Mwebesa.

On Thursday, trading at the NSE was delayed by two and a half hours, owing to what the bourse described as a system failure. The stock market opened at noon, instead of the usual 9:30 a.m., and closed at 3 p.m.

This is the second time this year that the opening of the stock exchange was delayed after a similar glitch held up trading on June 16.

Millennium Information Technologies of Sri Lanka implemented the automated trading system two years ago at a cost of 70 million Kenyan shillings (US$925,829).