Market Announcement

London Stock Exchange
5 April 2000


London Stock Exchange Market Announcement

Following the technical problem that prevented the London stock market from
opening this morning, Gavin Casey, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange,
said:

'The market opened at 3.45 p.m. this afternoon after a thorough investigation
into the fault in the network that takes real-time price and other information
from the central trading systems to our market users.  

'In order to enable investors to undertake their business, trading hours this
evening have been extended to 6.30 p.m.

'We very much regret the disruption that market users have experienced during
the course of the day.   As a result of today's breakdown, extensive work is
being undertaken not only to ensure that the immediate problem has been resolved
satisfactorily, but also to take whatever additional steps are required to
ensure that the system is robust and reliable for the future.'