The London Stock Exchange - Europe's biggest trading venue - is down

REUTERS/Toby Melville

• London Stock Exchange fails to begin trading on time on Thursday.
• Prices for stocks listed on the FTSE 100, Britain's benchmark share index, were unavailable 40 minutes after the 8 a.m. open.

LONDON - Britain's flagship trading venue, the London Stock Exchange, is suffering an outage on Thursday morning, and has failed to begin trading more than 30 minutes after its scheduled opening time.

It is currently unknown what is causing the issues with the market open, but a glitch is believed to have prevented the exchange's opening auction, the key mechanism for the start of trade, from taking place.

A spokesperson for the exchange said it will "update the market accordingly when it has more information."

By 8.40 a.m. prices for stocks listed on the FTSE 100, Britain's benchmark share index, were unavailable, according to data from Markets Insider.

The exchange is now slated to open at around 9.00 a.m., according to numerous reports.

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