Kathmandu, Sept. 21 -- Nepal's stock market was shut on Monday after a ransomware attack at a data centre disrupted the trading systems of 72 brokerage firms, prompting regulators to halt trading to prevent further damage.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), suspended trading at the request of the Stock Brokers' Association of Nepal after DataHub Pvt Ltd, which hosts the brokers' data systems, reported a cyber attack early Sunday.

The 72 brokers using the data centre were unable to operate their systems, according to Nepse. The exchange said the brokers had formally requested that trading be halted after the technical problem at the data centre remained unresolved.

The incident has also raised concerns about the wider exposure of Nepal's...