Market surge crashes trading platforms on ‘busiest ever day’
Investors trying to cash in on today’s market surge were left disappointed after some of the major trading platforms crashed due to overwhelming demand.
Pharma giant Pfizer today announced that early studies of its coroanvirus vaccine are 90 per cent effective which sent markets into a frenzy.
The FTSE 100 shot up, closing up 4.67 per cent, but a number of traders were unable to capitalise on the gains.
Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity and AJ Bell customers took to Twitter to vent their frustration that they had been locked out of their accounts.
Twitter user Mark Radders could not access his AJ Bell account. He said: “Today has cost me and special mention has to go to @AJBell for going beyond poor service to no service at all! If anyone got through to them on the phone very well done .. lesson learnt for me market volatility presents risk and opportunity but with ajbell again it is risk only”.
Hargreaves Lansdown customer Bob Smith tweeted: “On today of all days, your customers deserve better than this. SHAMEFUL!”
Rolls-Royce soared 43 per cent in trading on news of the vaccine’s early success, and airlines were similarly pushed higher.
British Airways owner IAG surged more than 30 per cent while Ryanair jumped 16.16 per cent.
Hargreaves Lansdown said the problem had been resolved but would not disclose the number of customers affected.
“This is our busiest ever day for web and app traffic, and as a consequence some clients are experiencing some intermittent service issues. We apologise for any inconvenience caused”, a spokesperson said.
Fidelity Personal Investing apologised to customers on Twitter: “We are aware some customers are experiencing intermittent problems logging in at the moment. We hope to have these resolved as quickly as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience.”
AJ Bell said: “Due to high trading volumes in the wider market, we have been experiencing some intermittent service issues with the platform this afternoon which meant it took longer than usual for some customers to access their accounts.”