Australia's ASX halts afternoon due to technical problems

[SYDNEY] Afternoon trading was halted on the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday, as a technical snag that had delayed the market's opening resurfaced.

"ASX has put the market in the 'enquire' session state, which halts trading, due to further issues. We are working to rectify as soon as possible and apologise for the ongoing disruption," an ASX spokesman said in a statement at 0446 GMT.

The opening of the bourse on Monday was delayed by more than an hour, due to technical problems.

The ASX's normal operating hours are between 10am and 4pm local time, but on Monday pre-open trading did not begin until 11.10am.

At 0437 GMT, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was flat at 5,294.8 points.

In an earlier statement on the morning snag, the ASX said the opening of the equities market was delayed "due to an issue with a component that allows ASX to manage individual stocks," and that the problem had been resolved.

REUTERS