The Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to resume full trading hours as early as April 24, ending a three-month stretch of shortened sessions designed to curb surges in trading traffic that shut down the bourse, news reports said yesterday.
The exchange, Asia's biggest, has cut its afternoon session by 30 minutes since being forced to suspended all transactions in January after panic selling overloaded the system.
Taizo Nishimuro, president of the TSE, said last week the bourse would try to resume normal trading hours by the end of the month. The TSE is now looking at April 24 for the restart date, according to the Nihon Keizai newspaper and Kyodo News agency, which cited unidentified officials at the exchange.
Officials from the TSE were unavailable for comment yesterday.
January's panic selling was triggered by the investigation of Internet firm Livedoor Co. on financial fraud charges. The shutdown exposed weaknesses in the TSE at a time of record trading volume and soaring investor interest in Japan's recovering economy.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is overhauling its system to accommodate more trading activity, and Livedoor was delisted from the bourse on Friday. That company's stock was trading for only one hour a day in its final weeks.
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