Suicide-watch set up for investors

Mumbai : Police are on the look out for possible suicides by brokers and investors after the recent steep market slide that wiped out billions of dollars in share value, officials said on Monday.

Policemen were keeping a watch near lakes and canals, possible places where people in distress could head to kill themselves. They said rescue teams were on alert. “A financial crisis can trigger suicides. We are just trying to prevent them.”

Till now, no such cases have been reported,” said RK Patel, a police official in Ahmedabad.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which had a market value of 7 billion last week after falling 10 per cent in the previous two sessions, slid as much as another 10 per cent in early trade on Monday only to
rise again later.

“Gold has turned into brass. We are finished,” said SS Gupta, a middle-aged Mumbai broker who said he had lost millions of rupees in two hours of trading on Monday morning.