NYX Nyse Euronext

Trans-Atlantic exchange operator NYSE Euronext (NYX) on Tuesday evening sought to rework its European stock market systems in hopes of preventing a third consecutive day of outages.

A nearly two-hour shutdown Tuesday morning spanned shares in some of the region's most widely followed indexes alongside related derivatives contracts, NYSE Euronext told traders in a notice late Tuesday.

"We do believe today's incident is related to the delayed opening in trading we experienced on Monday," exchange officials wrote in the notice. "NYSE Euronext is taking necessary measures to avoid a recurrence of this issue."

A number of "architecture changes" were being implemented Tuesday evening, according to the notice, including the replacement of some trading hardware and the electronic pathways that firms use to access NYSE Euronext's platforms.

NYSE Euronext runs stock markets in Paris, Brussels, Lisbon and Amsterdam, alongside trading in futures and options contracts linked to cash equities. Altogether the company accounts for about 16% of trading activity across Europe and the U.K., according to data from BATS Global Markets.

Tuesday's halt involved a "trading unit" that hosted stocks in Amsterdam's AEX and Brussels' Bel-20 benchmark indexes. Increasingly slow trading speeds ultimately led NYSE Euronext to halt trade in the affected securities between 9:03 a.m. CET (0703 GMT) and 11:00 a.m. CET (0900 GMT).

Some related derivatives also couldn't be traded for most of that period, according to the company, and in Lisbon, trading in exchange-traded funds was disrupted.

On Monday morning the operator suspended all trading between 0700 GMT and 0800 GMT because of a "technical problem" tied to the start-up procedure for European stock and bond markets, according to a separate notice.

Both Monday and Tuesday, NYSE Euronext saw its market share dip below average, while competitors like BATS and Chi-X Europe picked up business.

Traders said they were irritated by the shutdowns. "It's as if the bakery store closes. I can't do anything and can't make any money," said Corne van Zeijl, a fund manager at SNS Asset Management.

The ongoing problems come as NYSE Euronext aims to seal its tie-up with Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1.XE) to create the world's largest share- and derivatives-trading platform. The companies aim to consolidate their trading technology into one system that draws from existing platforms run by both companies, with NYSE Euronext Deputy Chief Executive Dominique Cerutti overseeing technology for the combined group.

NYSE Euronext shareholders will vote on the proposed merger July 7, less than a week before a July 13 deadline for Deutsche Boerse holders to tender their shares.

-By Maarten van Tartwijk, Dow Jones Newswires; +31 20 571 5201; maarten.vantartwijk@dowjones.com

--Jacob Bunge and Inti Landauro contributed to this article.

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