A satellite communications failure forced the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to stop trading yesterday.
The entire morning session was lost to the problem, which was discovered at about 9am.
An exchange spokeswoman said: 'We found that we could not receive any data. A notice was sent out at 9.25am to all securities firms across the country saying that due to a satellite telecommunications systems failure, some firms could not perform normal trading.'
Trading was suspended at 9.15am and resumed at 1pm.
A notice from the exchange telling traders that the problem had been solved said all orders placed in the morning would be honoured but trading time would not be extended.
It was the first time trading at the exchange had been halted for a long period.