The Tokyo Stock Exchange will raise the number of daily buy and sell orders it can process to 12 million in May from 9 million at present to keep up with surging growth in individual trading activity, TSE officials said Thursday.
The trouble-plagued bourse will also increase the maximum number of trades its system can execute each day to 7 million from 5 million now, the officials said. The changes will be approved Tuesday at a board meeting.
On Jan. 19, the world's second-largest bourse decided to delay the start of its afternoon session by 30 minutes to 1 p.m. as a temporary measure to prevent its outdated trading system from overloading.
The step was necessitated by the flood of selling that ensued after a looming correction in the market was triggered by a raid on Livedoor Co. on Jan. 16. The turmoil created panic among individual investors, whose rampant selling forced the bourse on Jan. 18 to close 20 minutes earlier than usual to protect its overwhelmed trading system.
The TSE originally planned to raise its trading thresholds by the end of the year.