Punching error costs Rs. 100 cr.

KOLKATA, JULY 2. An error in punching bids proved disastrous for a Bombay Stock Exchange member broker today when he lost over Rs. 100 crores in a single transaction on the very first day of the removal of the circuit filter.The incident took place at around noon when a BSE broker saw to his utter surprise that 14.08 lakh shares of ACC were sold at Re. 1 and Rs. 68 at a time when the prevailing price of the scrip was Rs. 144.

"The bid was for a single trade of 10.01 lakh shares and it appears that the selling price was mistakenly punched for Re. 1 instead of Rs. 144 and the entire trade was executed within seconds," said Mr. Mahesh Bajaj, a CSE member, who also has a BSE terminal. In normal circumstances, if such a mistake is committed by brokers, the bid is not accepted, but in this case it was accepted, market sources said. "Today bids of even Re. 1 is accepted by both BSE and NSE, which was not the case earlier."

This indicates that the removal of the circuit filter at the two premier stock exchanges of the country might cost dearly to those who were even slightly casual. An indication of this was seen on the very first day of its removal at the stock exchange, Mumbai.

In a similar incident at the Calcutta Stock Exchange in March last, a broker found that over 15,000 shares of Satyam Computers were sold at a market rate of about Rs. 6,400 even though the broker concerned wanted to sell only about 100 shares.

The CSE broker, Mr. Jayanta Poddar, immediately realised his mistake, but by the time he reversed his transaction the damage was done and over 10,000 shares were already sold.

Ideally, his terminal should have been deactivated as soon as he had crossed his daily trading limit fixed on the basis of margins deposited, but in that case it was not done.Mr. Poddar had lodged a complaint with the CSE, which blamed CMC for the incident but till now nothing had been done.

- PTI

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Sensex declines as new trading system begins
Next     : Car sales drop in June