London Stock Exchange hit with 'connectivity issue'

The London Stock Exchange is on hold Monday following a "connectivity issue" that halted trading. The timing couldn't have been worse: Volume was heavy in Europe after the U.S. government bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The UK's Times Online reports:

The LSE suspended connection to the exchange before 9am after some customers experienced problems. The operator admitted it was unsure when trading will restart while the cause of the problem is not yet known.

Today's suspension is the worst since April 5, 2000 — the last day of the tax year — when trading on the London Stock Exchange was delayed for eight hours, with dealing beginning only in mid-afternoon.

Meanwhile traders weren't exactly pleased with the LSE's disclosure and transparency--or lack of it. Those traders aren't kidding. You'd never know there was an outage looking at the LSE's Web site.