Stock markets continue to crash

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 9. The preventive measures by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) notwithstanding, major stock exchanges in the country continued to crash on Friday, almost a repeat of the ``black Friday'' of March 2.

However, this time, the crisis has been triggered off by a problem at the Kolkota Stock Exchange where four prominent brokers failed to come up with payments early in the day.

By evening, the situation had been somewhat brought under control.

While the Sensex dropped 176 point on March 2, today the drop at the close of the day was 175 points from the previous closing.

In the morning, however, the Sensex plunged by about 235 points in Mumbai, but things improved once information came from Kolkota that the payment crisis was being brought under control.

The crisis was reported to be of the order of Rs. 96 crores, but the exchange authorities, in a swift move, opened the bourse on a closed day (due to Holi) and by evening managed to bring down the shortfall to about Rs. 45 crores. The authorities were confident that the crisis would be over today.

The plunging Sensex saw a reflection in almost all the major bourses, including Delhi, Chennai and Kolkota.

Even foreign institutional investors retreated in the face of the falling market, triggered by the crisis.

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