The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted trading for the whole day Thursday as a result of a hardware breakdown - the worst ever for the world's third-largest share market.
Japan Exchange Group Inc. didn't say when trading would resume but will publish plans for Friday's session later. The stoppage meant buying and selling in thousands of shares was frozen on the first day of the new quarter. Previous outages had only affected part of the trading day.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is the world's third largest bourse after the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, with market capitalization of nearly $6 trillion.
Most other Asian markets were closed for national holidays.
In Asia data Thursday Japan's factory activity posted a rise in September, a private sector survey showed. Nevertheless, the world health crisis has taken a toll on factories with output and exports struggling. The au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 47.7 in September from 47.2 in August.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 2 cents to $40.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude fell 8 cents to $40.95 a barrel.
The dollar rose to 105.47 yen from 105.45 yen. The euro weakened to $1.1742 from $1.1746.
Overnight in the U.S. stock prices gained with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posting quarterly records. Both indexes are up more than 26% since the end of March, according to data from The Wall Street Journal. The Nasdaq composite rose 11% in the third quarter and 45% over the past six months - its biggest two-quarter gain since 2000.
