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A U.S. stock exchange is paying $62 million to brokers for its mishandling of the first day of share trading last year in the popular Facebook social networking web site.
U.S. securities regulators approved the payment by the Nasdaq exchange on Monday. The stock exchange was overwhelmed with orders to buy and sell the Facebook stock on May 18. It said technical malfunctions in its trading system delayed the start of trading and then left brokers unsure of how many shares they owned.
The debut of the Facebook stock was widely anticipated, but many investors have been disappointed. It traded as high as $45 a share on the opening day but has languished since then, most recently trading at about $25.