Brokers’ body wanted special market session on May 16
The thinking within Sebi is extending market hours — an unprecedented move — will only aid speculators and be of little help to small investors, people with direct knowledge of the development say.
Sebi’s stand could dash hopes of many brokers who had requested it to extend trading time by an hour and a half on May 16 (Friday) and to keep the market open on May 17 (Saturday) to fully factor in the poll outcome.
A senior executive of a stock exchange says the idea of an extended trade timing has almost been shelved for now.
Broker bodies, the Association of National Exchanges Members of India and BSE Brokers Forum, had last month sent the proposal to extend equities, market timing to Sebi and stock exchanges.
On May 16, the leads will start trickling in from morning but the final result is likely to come only after 3.30 pm, beyond trading time for the equities segment in India.
“There has been no precedence of making accommodations for volatility in markets arising out of election results; such a move can interfere in the normal market activity. Most retail investors may not even benefit and it could only benefit punters,” says a regulatory source.
The Indian market had reacted sharply to the Lok Sabha election results on the previous two occasions. It had zoomed 17 per cent on May 18, 2009, while trading had to be halted after the market hit the lower circuit on May 17, 2004.
This time, too,
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