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Journalism of Courage
The government is looking closely to see if there is a pattern to the sudden fall in the stock markets after a news website reported today that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was about to resign. The story disappeared from the site after a short while.
Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla told The Indian Express that his Ministry had a look at the stock market numbers today. The markets plunged to a two-month low with the benchmark Sensex dropping 345 points on intense selling amidst political uncertainty triggered by the 2G controversy.
Top SEBI officials said the market regulator was aware of the news item that appeared on the website. The item was quickly pulled out. We are collecting information about the trades immediately after the story appeared, said an official. He added that SEBI routinely follows up on all unusual market movements to satisfy itself that there was no effort by interested parties to play the markets.
While markets were subdued in early trade Friday,they picked up momentum by noon. The Sensex opened at 19,982.75 and touched a low of 19,505,before trimming losses and closing at 19,585. The fall was sharp between 3 pm and 3.15 pm,when the news of the PMs resignation was flashed on the website.
Chawla said the Ministry studied market movements daily. Some correction was waiting to happen, he said.
