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NZ Stock Exchange reports no Y2K glitches

WELLINGTON: The New Zealand Stock Exchange on Sunday reported a Y2K bug-free entry into the new millennium and said it expected normal operations to resume on January 5.

"We've done our testing and as far as we know we're okay, I'm sure of that," NZSE official Bill Malthus told Reuters.

The exchange sent out notices received recording no Y2K glitches at Auckland International Airport and Ports of Auckland as test messages and said it expected the first trading day on January 5 to proceed normally.

"We put them through our system to prove we could but they should be going through again, I believe, when we wake up from our five-day weekend and begin trading again," Malthus said.

"We sent them out on our broadcast, probably assuming no-one was listening."

New Zealand's Y2K Readiness Commission earlier gave the country a clean bill of health with no Y2K-related problems 35 hours into the millennium but urged businesses to remain wary.

"International experts forecast that only a small proportion of all Y2K-related failures will occur in the two weeks immediately before and after January 1," commission chairman Basil Logan said. "The bulk are likely to occur during the remainder of the year.

The commission said it would continue to monitor the situation and would issue its next report at 11.30 a.m. (2230 GMT Sunday) on January 3.

All information and updates are available on the commission's website at www.y2k.govt.nz, and bodies such as the NZSE have been reporting regularly to the commission's Y2K Status Centre in Wellington.-Reuters