Trading halted at New York Stock Exchange due to technical fault

Trading was halted on most securities at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday at 16:32 BST or 11:32 New York time.

The NYSE said on its status page: "NYSE/NYSE MKT has temporarily suspended trading in all symbols. Additional information will follow as soon as possible."

The exchange's cash equity trading was halted on all stocks, thought options were still reported to be trading, while the Nasdaq said it continued to trade NYSE-listed stocks.

A technical issue caused the trading halt, according to a source cited by Reuters.

NYSE said earlier that it was investigating technical issues that had been reported affecting 220 symbols, with some reports citing Las Vegas Sands, Macy's and Capital One as companies affected.

Trading was eventually restored around three hours later.

"It was a conspiracy theorist's dream," Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group, told the BBC.

Some traders suggested the exchange might have been hacked, which Kelly did not totally disregard.

"You're not going to hear from the New York Stock Exchange that there was any hacking, nobody is going to say that," she said, but did admit there was "a lot of strange activity in the markets" during the day.