Trading halted in Nepal due to data center failure — Kathmandu Post
In Nepal, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) suspended stock trading on September 21 due to a technical problem at the Data Hub Pvt Ltd data center, whose services were used by 72 brokers. Kathmandu Post reports that the incident was detected on Sunday morning, and as of around 11:00 on Monday, the problem had not yet been resolved.
According to the publication, a ransomware attack was detected at the data center at around 4:00, affecting the systems of 72 brokerage companies. Trading was halted following a written request from the Stock Brokers Association.
Risks to market operations
YCo Pvt Ltd, which manages brokers' trading systems, said the incident affected the trade management system, services related to the central depository system and clearing, payment gateways, and other associated services. The affected systems were isolated as a precautionary measure.
YCo said that because of the data center's network connection to Nepse, continuing trading before assessing the scale of the incident could have created risks for cybersecurity, operations, and data protection. Nepse representative Murahari Parajuli said the exchange was closed at the request of affected brokers and that regular trading could resume on Tuesday.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
According to an anonymous source for the publication, the Nepse board agreed on Monday evening not to suspend trading the following day even if the problem at Data Hub was not resolved. In that case, transactions were to be allowed through 18 brokers whose data are hosted by other companies. These brokers had also asked for trading to open on Monday, but the exchange did not agree.
A series of technical failures
This is not the first technical incident on Nepal's stock market. On February 17, 2026, the Nepse index mistakenly showed a decline of 885.32 points, or 33.34%, after the closing prices of shares in some companies were displayed as zero. The exchange explained this as a technical error. On July 23, about 15 minutes after trading ended, the Nepse website and the trade management system simultaneously showed the index falling by 1,008 points, about 37%, to 1,717 points. There was no actual market movement at that time.
Experts and investors interviewed by the publication believe that recurring problems in the operation of the exchange, brokers, data centers, and trading systems undermine confidence in the market and jeopardize investors' assets worth more than 4.5 trillion Nepalese rupees. The Securities Board of Nepal sent an inspection team and instructed Nepse to submit by September 28 a report on the reasons for the trading halt and recommendations to prevent similar incidents.
