4.33pm: Also a good day for the big four banks - CBA up 1.8 per cent to $49.99; ANZ up 1.9 per cent to $22; NAB up nearly 3.7 per cent to $25.87 on the back of record profit reports; and Westpac up 2 per cent to $22.76. 4.28pm: Overall, a good trading day for many of the big players, especially the miners. Rio Tinto ended the day up almost 4.5 per cent, adding $2.96 to finish on $69.70; BHP added $1.41, or 3.8 per cent, with the price currently $38.35; and Fortescue finished the day on $5.03, a jump of 41c being a nearly 9 per cent increase. 4.24pm: It's been a day blighted by a computer glitch and a four-hour delay, but Australian shares rallied 2.5 percent to their highest close in three months after European leaders agreed on a crucial plan to reduce Greece’s debts and provide it with more rescue loans. Banks, miners and retailers all posted strong gains after a technical glitch halted trade on the Australian Stock Exchange until mid-afternoon. At the close: The benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 105.7 points, or 2.49 per cent, at 4,348.2.

The broader All Ords was 103.1 points, or 2.4 per cent, stronger at 4,403.9. 4.08pm: Mining giant AngloAmerican is considering investing about $15 billion in Australia by 2019, CEO Cynthia Carroll has told the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth.

4.05pm: Elsewhere, Japan’s central bank says it is keeping its key interest rate at virtually zero and will expand the size of an asset buying program to lend stronger support to the economy. The Bank of Japan's policy board voted 8-1 to increase its asset purchase program by 5 trillion yen to Y55 trillion ($A695.15 billion). It will use the extra funds to buy Japanese government bonds, hoping that further monetary easing will offset the export-sapping strong yen. The central bank says it still expects the world’s No.3 economy to eventually return to moderate growth. 4.01pm: The New Zealand dollar has surged as much as one US cent in local trading after getting a leg up from the Reserve Bank’s nod for tighter monetary policy and European leaders convincing Greek bondholders to accept a write-down on their investment. The kiwi jumped to 80.33 US cents at 5pm from 79.51 cents at 8am, and was up from 79.57 US cents at 5pm on Wednesday. 3.58pm: Don't you wish you had one of these lying around? The biggest, heaviest and inherently most valuable gold coin in the world has been unveiled by the Perth Mint. Weighing 1012 kilograms, it is more than a tonne of 99.99 per cent pure gold worth more than $53.5 million. 3.53pm: The ASX is blaming today's show-stopping fault on a network connectivity issue with the ASX trade system: "ASX has worked with its technology vendor to resolve the issue," the ASX said.

The company's technology vendor is New York-based NASDAQ OMX. No one at the Australian office of NASDAQ OMX was available to comment.

3.48pm: Meanwhile, things are heating up at the CHOGM in Perth. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken a swipe at advanced economies, saying they urgently need to get their act together because Asia Pacific region is propping up global stability. Leaders in advanced economies had done "too little, too late" to address shaky confidence in their financial markets, so they needed to take urgent action or risk derailing global stability, Mr Rajapaksa told the Commonwealth Business Forum. 3.39pm: Woolies shares, meanwhile, continue to lag the market. They are now down, after the poor sales result, and are the sixth-worst performer among the top 200. 3.28pm: At current levels, the ASX200 is now at its highest since the start of September. If it ends the day at this level, it'll be near its highest level since early August. And that was about when all the bad news out of Europe started pummelling equities everywhere. 3.25pm: And more on rates, while we're at it: Most fixed-rate mortgages will have lower interest rate than variable-rate loans, even if the Reserve Bank cuts the cash rate by 25 basis points.

Financial comparison website RateCity says that since August, almost 90 per cent of lenders have cut their fixed-rate mortgages to an average rate of 6.56 per cent for a three-year loan.

Even if the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by 25 basis points on Tuesday and retail banks lowered their variable rate to an average 6.86 per cent from 7.11 per cent, RateCity CEO Damian Smith says the rate on 75 fixed-rate loan products would still be lower.

3.22pm: Looking ahead, for a minute, to the next big Australia story - Melbourne Cup Day. Apart from the nags, the RBA will be meeting to decide on interest rates. Amid all the flurry of news today, the market has eased off its 100 per cent certainty of a rate cut to 4.25 per cent. It's still seen as a 90 per cent chance the RBA will move, but if financial markets continue to rally, expect that prospect to be less certain still. 3.17pm: Crown shares, meanwhile, are about as much as the overall market despite James Packer (who owns 46 per cent) getting a bit of a shareholder rebuke. 3.11pm: Meanwhile, here's Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten's comments on the trading glitch: (Read full press release here.) "The ASX worked with its technology provider and in constant liaison with the market regulator ASIC to resolve their technical issues.

I've been advised the issues are not related to the introduction of competition, and will not affect the launch of Chi-X on 31 October.

The last time ASX experienced such an outage was 28 February 2011." 2.58pm: Shares are consolidating the gains. Meanwhile, from Europe - pointing to a few things yet to be nailed down:

Eurozone leaders took ‘‘extremely important decisions’’ to resolve the single currency area’s debt crisis, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said after a crunch summit early on Thursday.

‘‘We have taken extremely important decisions in several aspects,’’ Trichet, who steps down in November, told reporters.

‘‘All of this now requires a lot of work and a lot of quick work.’’ 2.43pm: Here's a reaction to the market's surge: "What a remarkable jump," said Alex Moffatt director at Melbourne-based Joseph Palmer and Sons, who said stocks showed additional strength following the "pent up" demand for trades earlier in the day.

"We believe the market has been sold off too far," he said. "Banks and major resource companies are presenting good opportunities for canny buyers."

The news from Europe is propelling stocks and dollar higher, said Mr Moffatt, but market sentiment overall remains fragile.

"Enjoy the rallies when they happen. Don't buy into the rallies. Buy into the dips," said Mr Moffatt. "Someone somewhere will say something that will upset this rally." 2.37pm: Other media news, by the way, isn't so good either: Consolidated Media Holdings (Consmedia) says Foxtel’s subscriber growth slowed in October and weak consumer sentiment remains a challenge.

Foxtel posted a positive subscriber performance in August and September, a reflection of its content at that time including coverage of the Rugby World Cup, Consmedia chairman John Alexander told the company’s annual general meeting.

‘‘While recent signs in October have not been as positive, we remain confident the compelling content proposition offered by Foxtel, including the comprehensive AFL coverage to be offered from next season, will remain a driver of subscriber growth this financial year,’’ he said.

Consmedia owns 25 per cent of pay-TV provider Foxtel and half of Premier Media Group, which produces the Fox Sports channels.

Its two biggest shareholders are James Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings and Kerry Stokes’s Seven Group Holdings.

2.35pm: Ten shares, by the way, have surged too, despite the 91 per cent profit drop reported earlier today. Goes to show how much the bade news was priced in. The stock was recently up 5 cents, or 5.9 per cent, to 90 cents. 2.29pm: Turnover was 424 million securities worth $936 million, with 18 stocks rising for every one that fell, so AAP says - that's til about 2.20pm, I'm guessing. 2.27pm: Overall market now up about 2 per cent. Financials are up about that amount too - so investors aren't too worried about the 50% haircut taken by Greek debt holders, nor the extra capital European banks are going to need by the end of next June. 2.21pm: ASX, meanwhile, is NOT going to extend its trading day - so you've got about 100 minutes left. 2.11pm: Key stocks to watch: NAB shares are up 2.4 per cent, or 60 cents, on its record result earlier today, to $25.55. Woolies shares are up just 11 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $24.26 on those slightly disappointing sales figures.

2.07pm: Foretescue Metals is up about 5 per cent, helping materials lead the way higher as a sub-group (up 1.6 per cent). Overall market is up about 0.7 per cent after all that fuss. 2.05pm: Echoes what Malcolm Maiden said in is his piece (an extract): There's growing confidence about an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank next Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day and NAB has posted a very solid profit result. And there's early word of a much more comprehensive plan to calm Europe's sovereign debt crisis than traders had expected as late as yesterday, when political infighting was raising the distinct possibility that talks between EU leaders would be fruitless.

We can thank our lucky stars that the outage did not occur next Monday, as Chi-X goes live. And one piece of good news is that ASX insiders say the system failure is not related to the imminent arrival of Chi-X and the systems changes that are being implemented to enable it. 2.03pm: ASX200 has risen, now that investor can jump on the good news from Europe. BHP shares are up 2.8 per cent, for instance, while CBA is up 2 per cent. 2.01pm: And we have lift-off!

1.59pm: And here's Malcolm Maiden's commentary on today's debacle by the ASX: One day the ASX will want to forget. 1.52pm: And 2pm is looking like the starting point: The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) says the market is due to resume trading at 1400 AEDT.

The sharemarket futures contract jumped after French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday (AEDT) announced an agreement on measures to contain Europe’s two-year debt crisis.

By 1341 AEDT, on the ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract was up 90 points at 4,310, with 21,624 contracts traded.

The ASX said all of Thursday’s trades were valid and would stand, adding that it had reviewed the 6,700 trades made before trading was halted at 1005 AEDT. 1.46pm: While we await the trading restart - more news from the AGMs. Billionaire James Packer not too happy it seems: James Packer has vowed to neutralise any shareholder backlash against Crown Limited’s remuneration report after the company received a 55 per cent vote against this year’s report.

And the chief executive has criticised the government’s attempts to introduce new regulations for poker machines, saying neither mandatory pre-commitment nor maximum bets would help problem gamblers.

Under new regulations the Crown board faces a spill motion next year if it receives more than 25 per cent vote against the next remuneration report.

Mr Packer, who is executive chairman and owns 45.6 per cent of Crown Shares, today warned shareholders he would not let the board be dismantled.

‘‘If we receive an against vote again next year the board will spill. If that happens I will use my votes to ensure all directors are voted back in immediately,’’ he said at the annual meeting at Crown Casino in Melbourne.

1.41pm: The dollar, meanwhile, has eased against the euro...dropping just below the 75 euro cents mark. (As you might expect, the euro has risen against most currencies on the Europe debt deal.) The Aussie dollar is also buying 79.7 yen and 65.4 pence - both a bit stronger than earlier today. (By the way, if you like this blog, it's something we do every day from 10am AEDT - usually the ASX is trading during those hours.) 1.35pm: Further afield, Dow share futures are up about 0.6 per cent or about 107 points. If anything, it suggests Australian shares will head higher when they can head in any direction.

1.31pm: While we await all the ASX markets going back into action shortly, worth looking around the region. New Zealand's top 50 are off about 0.2 per cent - so no kick there. Japan's main indexes are up 0.5 per cent, while Hong Kong's is up 1.2 per cent. 1.26pm: Getting word that the ASX will go into so-called 'pre-market' phase at 1.40pm. That means the full trading should kick in about 20 minutes later. 1.13pm: ASX is saying all trades so far today are 'valid' according to Bloomberg. The market remains in its 'enquire' mode.

Meanwhile, more evidence of how markets - other than Aussie stocks - are reacting to the good news out of Europe. The Australian dollar has jumped more than half a US cent to $US1.048 in recent trading. You can follow the dollar here. 1.06pm: According to Sarkozy, the bailout fund will set up 'powerful firewalls' to prevent 'contagion. The IMF has signed up to it. Australian investors can't act on the news yet - at least in the stock market. Oil, one gauge of investor hopes, is on the rise, adding about 1 per cent or so to this point. 1.02pm: Here's what France's Sarkozy is telling a press conference, via Bloomberg: There will no Greek default

Greek losses for investors will be about 100 billion euros

Greece's debt will fall to 120 per cent of GDP - but not until 2020.

12.57pm: ASX has said it will resume part of its trading about now. Let's see if it is fully switched on soon. 12.49pm:Tough comments coming in: "This is bedlam," said David Waterhouse, one of the biggest options traders in Australia. "If they can't get the market up today the ASX is going to have to have a serious look at what it's going to do about this."



"They are either going to have to make the expiry date tomorrow of find some other means of allowing traders to close out their positions."

"If you look at today, we've had the NAB result and Woolworth's report just before the market went down," he said.

"So this is going to leave a lot of people very exposed."

"You wouldn't think that in a civilised world something like this could happen." 12.36pm: That latter report is good news, in terms of helping to take one of the unknowns out of the debt equation. Banks had been seeking a smaller loss, ie haircut, on their Greek government bond holdings. The Aussie dollar, meanwhile, is at $US1.042, slightly stronger. 12.35pm: But important news from Europe - that the local market wishes it could trade on:

A European Union official says the currency union’s leaders have reached a deal with banks to take losses of 50 per cent of their Greek bonds in a key move to solve the eurozone’s debt crisis.

The official was speaking early on Thursday morning on condition of anonymity pending an official statement.A second official confirmed that there was a voluntary deal. 12.32pm: Back to the corporate news: Australian wagering group Tatts Group said today that its year-to-date progress so far is in line with advice given in August.

"There have been no surprises and nothing has emerged that will create an unexpected and insurmountable hurdle for future financial years," Tatts chief executive Dick McIlwain told shareholders. 12.31pm: Meanwhile, in case you missed it above, here's Chris Zappone video report on what's going on. 12.25pm:Here's a view from the industry - Derek Growns, the head of private wealth management at Wilson HTM, noting that today is the October options expiry day, so that that any exchange-traded options linked to equities are due to be rolled over or liquidated.



“It’s generally a busy day,” he said. “Here we are after midday and the exchange is putting out an announcement every 10 minutes.”



Mr Growns said it's rare to have an outage run so long:

“It’s frustrating there is no business going on and the problem at this stage is that we don’t know when it’s going to go on."



“It must be an embarrassment to the ASX given that (rival exchange) Chi-X is due to begin next month.” 12.19pm: As the item at 12.11 notes, there's a lot still to be resolved in the Europe talks. Can't help thinking that this quote from Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk hits it: ‘‘Everyone is impatiently awaiting the details but it’s not the devil that’s in the details, it’s all of hell,’’ he said. ‘‘Will we know the details tonight? I’m prudent, not to say sceptical.’’ 12.13pm: Seems like today's a particularly unhelpful day for the system to seize up - although a major breakdown in European debt talks would make it worse. Here's one comment to this blog of note:

'Options expiry day today - what will happen there? Bad luck if you need to exit a position!' 12.11pm

EU leaders are still still struggling to find a solution to the euro zone debt crisis, but it is proving elusive, with the banks unwilling to accept a big write-down on their Greek debt. 12.07pm: Two hours in, and no solution. Bad look for the world's 8th largest sharemarket...according to the ASX website. Then again, it does carry a 'currently trading' tag - and that's clearly not accurate. 11.57am: As Reuters notes: The technical glitch is an embarrassment for the ASX, coming just days ahead of the launch of trading in Australia by rival bourse operator Chi-X.

Chi-X, which counts Nomura as its top shareholder, is set for a soft launch in Australia on Monday, breaking the two-decade monopoly held by the ASX.

Chi-X, which is looking at new market opportunities in Asia Pacific and Latin America, has sold stakes to five top trading firms including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and plans to lean on these new partners to find the markets, its Chief Executive Tal Cohen told Reuters. 11.52am: Explosives and fertiliser supplier Incitec Pivot is looking into building an ammonium nitrate manufacturing plant on the site of its fertiliser facility in Newcastle in NSW. The company will conduct a feasibility study into construction of the plant, which would produce ammonium nitrate for the mining industry in NSW, particularly in the Hunter Valley. The study is expected to be concluded in the fourth quarter of calendar 2012.

11.45am: Gold miner Newcrest says volatility in global markets and financial concerns in Europe and the United States will likely support a strong gold price in the short and medium term. Newcrest is in a healthy financial position with strong profit margins and low debt, chairman Don Mercer has told the company’s annual general meeting. 11.41am: Still no movement on the ASX. It's now been out of business for over an hour-and-a-half. 11.31am: GPT Group says it is on track to increase full year operating earnings by seven per cent on what the property investor says is the high quality of its portfolio. GPT says the increase in operating earnings was well above the target of the CPI plus one per cent. Total shareholder return for GPT for the rolling 12 months to 30 September 2011 was 12.7 per cent. GPT said occupancy at its retail properties was at 99.9 per cent, office occupancy was at 97.5 per cent and industrial occupancy was at 100 per cent, as of September 30. 11.25am: Yesterday's main story was the release of CPI figures showing underlying inflation growing at its the slowest quarterly pace in nearly a decade. Today Treasurer Wayne Swan says there would be no excuse for retail banks not to lower their loan rates should the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate next week. The edict comes as the National Australia Bank this morning reported a near 24 per cent jump in annual profits to a record $5.22 billion. 11.20am: Tokyo stocks have opened 0.35 per cent up as investors waited for the outcome of the marathon EU summit on the debt crisis. The benchmark Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened 30.93 points higher at 8,779.40.

11.15am: The currency market is trading despite the ASX glitch. The Australian Dollar is currently buying US$1.0418, 74 Euro cents, 65 British pence, and 79.398 Yen. 11.13am: Chi-X, the rival trading market, is due to start soon too. Presumably they won't mind if the halt lasts all day. 11.11am: ASX spokesman Matthew Gibbs said that the market was halted at 10.05am after market participants were unable to conduct transactions. At that time 6700 trades had already taken place, he said, but the nature of the problem was still unknown.

"At this stage we just don't know what the problem is," he said. 11.08am: Bit more on that Woolies result, and why investors probably won't respond positively when they get a chance to trade:

Woolworths, posted a 1.9 percent rise in first-quarter comparable store sales in Australian food and liquor, missing expectations, and said the retail sector continued to be hurt by lack of consumer confidence.

A Reuters survey of six analysts had expected 2.7 per cent growth.

Woolworths, which also owns discounter Big W and electronics chain Dick Smith, said total sales in the three months to Oct 2 rose 4.9 per cent to $14.6 billion from $13.9 billion a year ago.

Woolworths has said net profit growth would be limited to between 2 per cent and 6 per cent in fiscal 2012. 11.03am: An hour into the frozen trade.Meanwhile, from the AGMs: James Packer, chairman of casino owner Crown, says proposed poker machine reforms will not tackle problem gambling.

Speaking at Crown’s annual general meeting in Melbourne on Thursday, Mr Packer said mandatory pre-commitments for high-intensity poker machines was not the right solution.

‘‘We don’t have an issue with the Federal Government taking action against problem gambling, but it must be the right solution,’’ he said. 10.53am: Another trader describes the finer details of what's going on: Currently the market has gone into what is officially termed an ''enquire'' mode, which means there is no trade at all.

Once the tech problems have been resolved the market will then go into a ''pre noticed received'' phase, or what brokers call a ''pre-auction'' phase for about 10 minutes.



That gives traders (etc) the chance to sort out orders after which trading will start. 10.47am: One trader telling BusinessDay that it may be hours before trading resumes. 10.45am: The ASX sent out an alert shortly after the market opened at 1000 AEDT adding that all trades for today are under review. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was halted after falling 0.3 points to 4,242.2, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 0.1 points at 4300.7 .By 1035 AEDT on the ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract was down five points at 4,217, with 9,369 contracts traded - presumably that's also halted (although AAP not say.)

10.41am: Australian stock exchange operator ASX Group has halted markets due to technical issues and is seeking to resolve the problem, a spokesman said, according to Reuters. The spokesman did not elaborate on the technical issues nor give an exact time frame for resumption of trade. 10.32am: Oddly enough, the data glitch is broad - even on the ASX's own website, there's a flatline. So far, though, ASX not saying what's up, and the various news agencies aren't much help: The Australian Securities Exchange says it is experiencing technical difficulties and has placed all markets into enquire until further notice. The exchange also said in an alert that it was reviewing all trades for trades. 10.22am: Notice the flatline above? ASX has a data problem...which we'll get more detail about soon. Hence, no share price reaction to NAB, Woolies, Ten so far.

10.12am: Stocks mixed but this news just in might not help: Woolworths increased first quarter sales by 4.9 per cent as Australia’s biggest supermarket chain increased market share and customer numbers.

Sales increased to $14.597 billion for the 14 weeks to October 2, compared with $13.91 billion a year earlier, Sydney-based Woolworths said.

But the company’s general merchandise division, which includes discretionary retailers, reported a 1.6 per cent sales decline to $1.522 billion. 10.05am: Europe, of course, remains a large part of the markets story today. Latest view is that there's an accord to raise the size of the rescue package but the size of the 'haircut' banks will take over Greece government debt remains unresolved. 10.02am: Australian pay-TV group Foxtel's $2 billion takeover bid for rival Austar United Communications should be finalised in early 2012 subject to a number of conditions being met, Austar said in a statement. It said the Australian competition regulator planned to release a decision on the deal by Nov. 30, 2011.

Foxtel, which is 25 per cent owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has bid $2 billion for Austar but there has been concerns the competition watchdog may block the deal. 9.45am: Good morning. Lots going on at home and abroad - which we'll try to keep up with through the trading day. So far, on the home front, we've had a record NAB profit result that looks to be have topped analysts' expectations, so that stock may get a rise at the open. Ten Network, meanwhile, has posted a 91 per cent drop in full-year profit. In case you missed our morning need2wrap, here are a couple of the highlights: