Technical glitch yet to be resolved Philippine shares pressured by surge in COVID-19 cases MANILA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE.PS) on Tuesday suspended trading because of a technical glitch at the start of the session. The stock exchange operator said in an advisory that 43 of 125 brokerage firms registered with it could not connect to the bourse"s trading system. (https://bit.ly/3pSPZIi) Under the bourse operator"s rules, it can halt trading if a third of brokerage firms cannot access the system. The Philippines" broader index (.PSI) fell 1.4% on Monday, marking the bourse"s worst opening since 2016, weighed down by rising COVID-19 infections that has prompted the government to tighten curbs. There were technical problems in establishing connection between the NASDAQ trading engine and the Flextrade front-end system, the PSE said, adding that it is working with relevant parties to identify the cause of the glitch. It did not give a timeline when the issue will be resolved. "We are working diligently together with PSE to resolve this issue as soon as possible," NASDAQ said in an e-mailed response for comment. All other NASDAQ systems and markets were operating normally, it added. "We don"t know when the glitch will be fixed since we"re all in the same boat here, just waiting for more updates," Corenne Agravio, senior equity analyst at Regina Capital Development Corp in Manila, told Reuters. "There could be a knee-jerk negative reaction as investors rush to unload shares amid the surge in COVID-19 cases, but that won"t be a reflection of the bourse"s technical issues."