Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) announced this morning's trading session of futures and options products on HKATS, Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System, was delayed due to technical issues with the HKATS gateway service supporting Participant access to HKATS.

The operations of HKATS resumed at10:10amand trading in all futures and options products on HKATS resumed at10:40am. The 30-minute lead time between system readiness and trading resumption is part of HKEx's contingent arrangements to allow market participants to prepare for the trading resumption.

During the temporary suspension of trading on HKATS, the HKEx securities market - which uses the Third Generation Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS/3) and the Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company - was not affected.

HKEx is investigating the root cause of the incident and will submit a report to the Securities and Futures Commission. OMX, the supplier of HKATS, was involved throughout the problem diagnosis and HKATS recovery process.

HKEx regrets any inconvenience caused by the interruption and will continue its efforts to enhance system reliability.