Day after technical glitch, NSE witnesses normal trading

On Monday, cash turnover plunged to Rs 6,256 cr compared to average daily turnover of Rs 23,000 cr

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) operated normally on Tuesday, a day after it had to halt trading for over three hours due to a “technical glitch”. 

Trading volumes on the exchange were also back to average levels, with the cash segment clocking a turnover of Rs 26,457 crore and the derivatives segment witnessing Rs 4.69 lakh crore worth of trade amid the benchmark Nifty 50 recording a new closing high of 9,786.

On Monday, the cash turnover plunged to just Rs 6,256 crore compared to this month’s average daily turnover of around Rs 23,000 crore. The turnover in the derivatives segment had dropped to Rs 3.3 lakh crore against July’s average daily turnover of Rs 4.8 lakh crore.  The NSE said on Tuesday that all the three segments --  cash, derivatives and currency -- functioned normally and settlements went through smoothly. 

“The NSE will continue to work to improve the systems, to avoid any recurrence of such eventualities,” the bourse said in a statement, thanking all the stakeholders “for the support and cooperation”.

Ashok Chawla, chairman, NSE, termed Monday’s technical glitch as “one more straw on the camel's back”.

“While such a situation is a black swan event, it unfortunately puts the NSE in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. We have handled this effectively, which is indeed our responsibility as the largest exchange of the country,” he said in a letter to NSE employees. “We are, no doubt, passing through difficult times, but that we shall overcome,” Chawla wrote, calling 2016-17 as a year of “many highs and lows”.

“We have done well financially and continued our robust market presence. At the same time, it has been a period of challenges- on the organisational front, stress over the legacy technology issues, re-energising of relations with stakeholders across the spectrum from the regulator to shareholders,” the former bureaucrat wrote in his 240-word letter.  Being non-executive chairman, Chawla has been playing a pivotal role at the NSE in absence of a full-time chief executive officer and managing director. NSE’s MD & CEO-designate Vikram Limaye is expected to take charge later this month.

The NSE is looking to settle allegations of preferential treatment to certain brokers at its co-location facility. It is also in the process of launching a Rs 10,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) to provide an exit to certain investors.  Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has launched a probe into the technical glitch. The exchange has to submit a detailed report explaining the reasons for the trade disruption to the market regulator which will then be shared with the finance ministry. The rattled broking community also has urged the NSE to take steps to restore confidence in the bourse.