The swiss franc is the victim of a "flash crash" in Asia

LONDON (Reuters) – The swiss franc has been the victim of a “flash crash” Monday on the asian markets, the sharp decline spurred by the lack of liquidity which made it fall briefly to its lowest level since November against the dollar.

The swiss franc has lost up to 1% in a few minutes against the greenback shortly after 22: 00 GMT: while she was talking around 1,0004, it fell to 1,0095 at the lowest of the day before returning from 22h35 GMT to its previous level.

Around 13: 00 GMT, the swiss franc is dealt with around 1,0035, a decrease of approximately 0.37%. The us dollar appreciated by approximately 0.2% in

The fact that the day of Monday is holiday in Japan has sharply reduced the liquidity of the beginning of the session in Asia, a context favourable to this type of phenomenon.

“Since there has been no new significant during the beginning of the session in Asia, this movement appears to be due mainly to a few big orders executed in a context of very low liquidity,” said Maros Hadjikyriacos, analyst of the broker XM.

Other stakeholders were called upon to put into perspective the importance of this movement.

“There is nothing to comment on (…) A difference of 1% in a context of low liquidity is not a crash. If someone is knowledgeable in the area of the seismic shocks on the foreign exchange market (…) it is the swiss national Bank”, said Viraj Patel, strategist currencies in the Arkera, a technology company financial.

The swiss franc had gained up to 30% in 2015, after the abandonment totally unexpected of pegging the franc to the euro.

The previous “flash crash” on the foreign exchange market dating back to 3 January, when the yen had suddenly jumped by 7% against the australian dollar.

(Tom Finn, Marc Angrand for the French service)