Frustration and cursing were all over the day when the local stock exchange, Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), was down for the day – the worst in the exchange’s history. Initially Bursa Malaysia Securities said trading would be suspended for at least the morning trading session from 9am to 12.30pm following a multi hardware failure in its core trading system. The exchange blamed the problem on computer glitch and promised the trading would resume in the afternoon session but after lunch the system was still down until end of the day’s trading hour.

Now, Bursa Malaysia chief executive Yusli Mohamed Yusoff confidently told reporters that the day-long closure, which resulted from the failure of a computer hard disk, will resume tomorrow. I’m not sure what else the CEO will blame if the so-called technical problem couldn’t be resolve from tonight until tomorrow before the opening bell. Dealers already warned the country’s benchmark index could fall sharply when trade resumed (tomorrow). A dealer at a foreign brokerage said people who couldn’t sell today will dump their stocks first thing in the morning tomorrow. Another dealer said the market is bearish and most of futures contracts are being short and predicted the index could easily plunge 5 percent tomorrow.

When you thought the excitements from the local political landscape is due to take a rest after opposition de-facto leader Anwar was accused of sodomy “again” days ago, suddenly P. Balasubramaniam, the private investigator hired by Abdul Razak Baginda released a shocking statutory declaration alleging the police had deliberately omitted pertinent information about the Altantuya Shaaribuu murder case.

In the declaration, he claimed that he had told the police that Razak said he was introduced to Altantuya by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at a diamond exhibition in Singapore and that Najib told him that he (Najib) and Altantuya had a sexual relationship and that “she was susceptible to anal intercourse.” Balasubramaniam said Razak told him that Najib had asked him (Razak) “to look after” Altantuya aka Aminah because he did not want her to harass him now that he was deputy prime minister.

While Bursa CEO Yusli was cool about the trading problem today saying it was normal, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the technical glitch gave a bad impression to foreign investors but denied that the stock exchange was suspended due to current political uncertainties. Now, Yusli might be able to bluff normal people out there but any first year I.T. student would fall off the chair laughing at the reason give – the failure of a computer hard disk. This silly excuse is out-dated and cannot be used at the current I.T. age considering hard-disk would have multiple backup or fallback plans in place with the importance of Bursa Malaysia as the stock exchange of the country.

Heard of RAID-5, RAID-1, RAID 0+1, mirroring, clustering, replication, data protection and disaster recovery plan Mr Yusli? Of course he heard of it and obviously these were in place else he should be sacked immediately. Bank Negara (Central Bank) and Securities Commission should have audit their DR (disaster recovery) plan, no? It’s puzzling to hear such ridiculous statement from the CEO. Come on, tell us the actual reason and we might just forgive the stock exchange but to lie and follow the foot-steps of politicians is simply unacceptable.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Stock Market – Quantity Rules over Quality
• Yusli Switch Direction To Blame Remisiers & StockBrokers

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July 3rd, 2008 by financetwitter

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