THE president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange resigned yesterday to take responsibility for the “fat-finger” trading error that sparked a day of mayhem on Tokyo markets earlier this month.

Takuo Tsurushima resigned along with Sadao Yoshino, the bourse’s managing director, and Yasuo Tobiyama, its head of computer systems.

The incident has left considerable turmoil in its wake: Mizuho Securities lost 40 billion yen (£195 million) on the botched trade and two Japanese day traders made Y2.5 billion in a few minutes.

Western investment houses who made money from the error have been publicly criticised by the Japanese Government and agreed to pay the profits they made into an investors’ protection fund.

Losses from the trade were sufficient to force Mizuho to cancel all end-of-year bonuses from the securities arm. The trader, believed to be a 24-year-old woman relatively inexperienced on the dealing floor, had wanted to sell one share in J Com, a new telecoms firm, for Y600,000. She mistyped the order and sold 600,000 shares at Y1 each.

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