NYSE says resumes connectivity after tech glitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange said on Friday it had restored connectivity after a software glitch halted floor trading in about 240 companies, including Dow components General Electric Co (GE.N), Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and Merck & Co (MRK.N).

A spokesman for NYSE Euronext (NYX.N), the world's top exchange operator measured by its listings, said the exchange did not plan to cancel trades in the affected stocks.

In an 11:37 a.m. note to traders, the NYSE said that it lost connectivity in a matching engine, stopping floor brokers and market makers from handling the affected stocks. Orders were then re-routed to NYSE Euronext's small cap Arca platform, and other U.S. market centers.

Connectivity was restored around 12:10 p.m., a spokesman said. Technicians were slated to work through the weekend to ensure the Big Board opens as usual on Monday.

"We all have the ability to trade everywhere, so my guess is you just redirect your order call away from the exchange floor until they get it fixed," Ted Weisberg, a floor trader with Seaport Securities in New York, said during market hours.

"Today we have other avenues to redirect our business to, so it's kind of a non-event, it's more of an electronic embarrassment."

Shares of NYSE Euronext closed down 0.7 percent at $29.81.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu, Leah Schnurr and Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)