NYSE plans Snapchat dry run to smooth float path

The New York Stock Exchange, the world’s biggest, is concerned it may not be able to cope with demand for Snapchat’s listing, the biggest tech float in almost five years.

It will conduct a trial run tomorrow to test whether it can deal with the high level of demand expected for shares in Snap Inc, the parent of the popular self-deleting photo app founded by Evan Spiegel.

An email to NYSE traders revealed that the exchange will offer a “weekend production testing opportunity” so that firms could “exercise their IPO trading logic”.

The NYSE does not usually conduct trial runs except for big floats such as Twitter and Alibaba.

Nasdaq came under fire in 2012 after a chaotic first day of dealing for Facebook. Trading in the social media giant was delayed and there were numerous technical glitches on its debut.

Snapchat will be worth between $19.5 billion (£15.6 billion) and $22.5 billion.