Price swings in microcap stocks trip circuit breaker on Nasdaq

Four microcap companies which trade on the Nasdaq were halted earlier on Tuesday after triggering the exchange's circuit breaker pause due to large price swings.

Three of the stocks - BOS Better Online Solutions Ltd , Verenium Corp , and eFuture Information Technology Inc - saw trading paused within the first hour of the market open as a result of a price swing of more than 10 percent in a five-minute period.

Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc , saw trading paused under the "Limit Up/Limit Down" program launched by exchanges in order to address market volatility and consists of a gradually expanding list of stocks for inclusion.

Limit Up/Limit Down halts are triggered when trading in a stock moves outside of a shifting price band, a range which is based on recent prices, for more than 15 seconds. Helios was added to the program on Monday.

Each of the four stocks has market capitalizations of less than $30 million.

Nasdaq was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, additional reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Nick Zieminski)