BJP demands JPC probe into Sensex crash

New Delhi, Oct 17: The opposition BJP today accused Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram of mishandling the situation that led to the Sensex crashing over 1700 points in the wake of SEBI's announcement of its intention to regulate the Participatory Notes (PN). Demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into today's volatility in the share market, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters: "The Finance Minister owes an explanation as to why he waited for the market to fall by 2000 points before coming out with a clarification."

"The earlier announcement by SEBI about its intention to regulate the PN followed by a late clarification by the Finance Minister only on following day after the crash, clearly exemplifies the complete mishandling of the situation by the government and its related agencies," he added.

Alleging that the extreme volatility in the capital market also points towards the existence of a nexus between various persons and institutions who stand to gain from the volatility of the capital market, Javadekar said: "The extreme volatility witnessed during the last few sessions, was not based on logical fundamentals and became a case of pure and excessive speculation."

The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) 30-share Sensex today opened with a huge negative gap of 1, 014 points.

Following this major crash, trading was halted for an hour. This was the third such instance in the last three years.

However at the end of the trading day, the Sensex recovered the loss considerably, closing at 18,715 levels, down 1.8 per cent or 336 points, after Chidmabaram ruled out any ban on investment through PN. (ANI)>