Shares in world’s biggest companies plunge suddenly amid NYSE ‘technical issue’

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Louise Thomas

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Shares in some of the world’s biggest countries have suddenly plunged amid an apparent technical issue at the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares in investment firm Berkshire Hathaway appeared to have dropped by 99.97 per cent because of the problem. Normally, those shares are among the highest-priced on Wall Street – but on Monday they appeared to have lost almost all of their value.

Trading in the affected companies – which also included corporates such as Chipotle – was halted because of the volatility.

It was unclear how many shares were affected in all.

The exchange said it was investigating the problem, which appeared to have resulted from a computer issue.

The problem related to Limit Up-Limit Down bands, it said, which are usually set to ensure that trades cannot happen considerably higher or lower than a currency price.