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03:28 PM EST, 02/27/2020 (MT Newswires) -- Trading was halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange and other markets in Canada on Thursday for technical reasons amid a global equities rout spurred by growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus. TMX Group said it declared a technical halt on the TSX, the country's largest equities market, the TSX Venture Exchange and TSX Alpha amid a problem with entering orders on the bourses. Clients are unable to enter, modify or cancel open orders and the company was investigating the problem, it said on its website. "Prior to re-opening, we will provide sufficient time in a pre-open state for Participants to manage their orders," the company said. The S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 1.9% before the halt, the lowest since early November on a closing basis. Volumes of 232.7 million shares was above the average of about 215.5 million. The S&P/TSX Venture Composite had sank 4.6% into the stoppage. Markets around the world have been jolted by fears about the spread of the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China late last year. US markets were heading for a sixth day of declines, with the benchmark S&P 500 heading for the lowest on a closing basis since Oct. 31. "Investors fear the coronavirus (COVID-19) will expand from an epidemic to a pandemic," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note earlier today. Canada has 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University. The US has 60 and mainland China has more than 78,000. The numbers of deaths has reached 2,810 around the world, with most of those in China, the data showed. |