Glitch freezes Footsie values for 28 minutes

The benchmark FTSE 100 index of leading shares suffered a glitch which caused index values to remain unchanged for 28 minutes yesterday.

The FTSE Group, which compiles the index, said the real time index value service was disrupted between 1.16pm and 1.44pm, but individual share values were not affected.

"FTSE takes service disruptions seriously and is presently investigating the cause of the problem," said a spokeswoman for the index complier.

Unlike the systems failure which halted activity on the London Stock Exchange for several hours in September last year, the glitch did not affect trading, with dealers carrying out their business as usual.