{"id":126974,"date":"2022-05-02T12:52:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T12:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=126974"},"modified":"2022-05-02T12:52:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T12:52:37","slug":"brief-crash-hits-european-stocks-in-holiday-thinned-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/brief-crash-hits-european-stocks-in-holiday-thinned-trading\/","title":{"rendered":"Brief crash hits European stocks in holiday-thinned trading"},"content":{"rendered":"
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – European stocks suddenly fell on Monday before partly recovering in what brokers described as a \u201cflash crash\u201d or an erroneous trade on a day where a holiday thinned trading activity.<\/p> The Stockholm benchmark stock index was amongst the hardest hit and after falling by 8% at one point it later pared most of the losses to trade down 1.2% at 0942 GMT. Other indices also sank, including in countries from Denmark and Norway, to Germany, Italy and France, but later recovered.<\/p>\n The sudden move sent the pan-European STOXX 600 equity benchmark extending its fall by over 2 percentage points in a matter of around two minutes from around 0758 GMT, although the closure of London for holiday reduced volumes.<\/p>\n A gauge of euro zone stocks\u2019 volatility also saw a sudden spike to hit its highest since mid-March, at 35.99.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird in those minutes there,\u201d Martin Munk, vice president of equity sales at Jyske Bank, said, adding that many worried clients had called in asking what was happening.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s starting to smell of something more technical, it may have been triggered by a erroneous trade, a technical malfunction. It doesn\u2019t look like it was triggered by an event out in the world, because that news would have hit us by now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Brokers Nordnet said the sudden move was a \u201cflash crash\u201d that caused a brief market panic, while traders in Frankfurt and London said the outsized move might have been caused by algos going haywire or a big \u201cfat finger\u201d trade.<\/p>\n A Euronext Oslo spokesperson said there was no news in the market that could explain the rapid decline.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking into this as a matter of routine, there was no news in the market that could explain such a large move,\u201d Euronext Oslo spokesperson Cathrine Segerlund said.<\/p>\n Nasdaq said it continuously investigates price movements on its market place, and was in a dialogue with market participants over Monday\u2019s volatility.<\/p>\n \u201cWe currently see nothing to indicate errors in Nasdaq\u2019s own systems,\u201d a spokesperson for the exchange said in en e-mail.<\/p>\n