LONDON, July 19 — The London Stock Exchange was hit by a technical glitch today that affected its news service and delayed its display of opening trades, amid IT outages across the world.

A source close to the LSE told AFP that the issue was linked to a technical issue affecting Microsoft customers worldwide.

The LSE’s company news feed “is currently experiencing a third-party global technical issue, preventing news from being published,” the exchange said in a statement.

“Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal.”

London’s FTSE 100 appeared to open at about 0720 GMT, twenty minute later than normal, though eurozone indices opened on time.

In later morning deals, the FTSE was down 0.5 per cent at 8,159.16 points.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 slid almost 0.8 per cent to 18,213.11 points and the Paris CAC 40 index shed 0.5 per cent to stand at 7,545.44. — AFP