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Our Bureau

Mumbai , May 17

TRAILING through the events that happened on Monday, one can only recall a similar day of cries, confusion and chaos more than a decade ago on the day the securities scam broke out.

At 9:56 a.m. on Monday, a minute after the opening bell, the Sensex is at 4927, a dip of 142 points from Friday's close of 5069. Though a section of the market was confident that Monday would reverse the downward trend demonstrated most of last week, what happened was the opposite.

By 9:59 a.m., the Sensex had continued it's downward descent to touch 4792, shedding 135 points in three minutes. In the next minute and a half, the market clawed back to 4837, a marginal 0.9 per cent increase.

At 10:17 a.m., the 30-scrip index shed 553 points from the previous day's close and breached the 10 per cent level. Trading was suspended for about an hour and market participants were informed that trading would resume at 11:15 a.m.

At 11.15 a.m., when trading resumed, the stocks went on a quick tumble, the Sensex graph plunging with zero inclination. In the next three minutes and forty seconds, the index touched its intra-day lowest at 4247 points. The market had, by this point, wiped out 16.21 per cent in value, all in 30 minutes of trading.

The circuit breakers were hit and at 11:20 a.m., the stock exchanges suspended trading for two hours. BSE announced that trading would recommence at 1:20 p.m.

The political machinery got moving at this point and Dr Manmohan Singh, the probable for the post of the Union Finance Minister, held a media address in which he assured the stock markets that the new Government was committed to the development of the financial markets. He also warned that strict actions would be taken against those found guilty of market manipulation.

At 1:20 p.m., when the markets resumed, the Sensex witnessed a resurgence. The Reserve Bank of India also announced that it was ready to provide additional liquidity to banks in order to ensure that settlements in the market take place smoothly. The Sensex quickly climbed and rose to 4697 in the next four minutes. This level was however, not sustainable and the index slipped to 4572, by 1:29 p.m.

Buoyed by some value buying, the index started an upward trudge subsequently and hit this session's peak at 4761 at 1:56 p.m.

From this level, the index went on a jagged decline, falling in clumps of 20-25 points and then rising by about 10 points. This pattern continued all afternoon and at 3:20 p.m., the index touched 4460. Closing bell, ten minutes later, saw the index at 4505.87.

The Sensex registered an intra-day decline of 822 points, the highest ever in the history of the Bombay Stock Exchange. Monday was also the day the index rose by 450 points, a ray of sunshine that was barely noticed, amidst the gloom.

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