Singapore's stock exchange suffered a major technical breakdown Thursday, leaving investors unable to trade for half a day.

Trading stopped at 11:38 am (0338 GMT) due to a technical error, Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) said on its website.

"The SGX securities market was put in adjust phase at 1138 hours due to duplicate trade confirmation messages being generated," it said.

SGX promised to reopen in the afternoon but later said it was closing the exchange for the rest of the day.

SGX last suffered major trading disruptions in 2014.

On November 5, 2014, trading halted for over two hours due to a power failure. Less than a month later, market opening was delayed by more than three hours because of a software glitch.

Singapore's central bank rebuked the exchange, which last year said it would spend Sg$20 million ($15 million) to upgrade its technical infrastructure.