SEBI, NSE to take appropriate actions: Chidambaram on Nifty crash

A day after stock market benchmark NIFTY witnessed a 900-point flash crash, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said the matter is being investigated and regulator SEBI would take necessary actions in this regard.

Addressing the media after meeting SEBI top officials in Mumbai, he said that he has been told that there was no systemic risk in the capital market and the stock exchange NSE had come out with a statement explaining the incident.

He said the NSE had said it is investigating the matter and market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) would take necessary actions.

He was replying to queries on fall of about 900 points or close to 16 per cent in Nifty within seconds in a flash crash like situation yesterday morning, which led to a halt in trading at NSE for about 15 minutes.

"I was assured there was no systemic risk," he said.

Asked further about the issue, the minister on a lighter note said he did not understand the technical issues like 'algo trade and non-algo trade' and read out the statement issued by NSE yesterday.

The NSE had said there was no technical glitch in its system and blamed the crash on erroneous orders worth over Rs650 crore for multiple trades by broker Emkay Global in various stocks at low prices on behalf of an "institutional client".

While NSE said it is investigating into the incident, sources have said market watchdog Sebi had also begun a probe yesterday itself into the 'flash crash'.