A rush-in of trade incited by the rallying stock market jammed a local broker's online and phone hotline trading systems yesterday, the Oriental Morning Post reported.

The Shanghai Composite Index, tracking all stocks traded on the Shanghai exchange, surged 126.59 points yesterday, the biggest jump on a single trading day from the past 18 months. 
Over 1.1 million hands were transacted and the trade volume reached 8.3 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion).

The online trading system of Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. Ltd became jammed from 9am, when trading starts, and was not restored until 2 pm, one hour before trading ends, complained Cheng Huimin, an avid trader.

"As per normal, I sat before my computer in the morning to prepare for the trading, only to find it failed to log onto my account through the online system," Cheng said.

"The market bounced and dived, but I couldn’t do anything about it.  I missed the good chances to make money."

"I called Shenyin & Wanguo to report the online traffic jam and got a reply that the broker is negotiating with the telecommunications operator to arrange urgent repairs and that the system would be fully restored in a couple of days," he added.

Gong Hua also reported to Shenyin & Wanguo about the online traffic jam and was suggested to try the firm's telephone trading system.

"If that doesn't work, just go to one of the company's trading outlets, they suggested," she said.

"I tried to dial the firm's trading hotline, but it was busy all afternoon. So I gave up and went directly to the trading outlet near my home."

"In the outlet, I had to share a computer with so many other people. It was really inconvenient," she complained.

An official, surnamed Zheng, with Shenyin & Wanguo's public relations department confirmed the jams, saying that the company has dispatched an emergency repair group to solve the problem after receiving client complaints.

The online system was upgraded yesterday afternoon, she added.

Chen Weidong, general manager with Shenyin & Wanguo's Changhua Road outlet, cited the booming trade to the jammed trading systems.

"Speculative trade has boosted to profit from the recent wide price fluctuations," he analyzed.

There used to be 10 phones in his outlet for traders to use. This year, they increased the number of phones to 100, but it’s still hard to meet the demand during the peak trading time, he said.