No glitch at exchange platforms in ONGC auction: bourses

Leading bourses NSE and BSE have said that their systems operated normally without any glitches during the auction for ONGC shares and some bids got initially rejected due to problems outside the exchange platforms.

"While the buy orders at both exchanges reflected a demand of 29.22 crore shares around the market close, there were certain buy orders which were not immediately confirmed or were erroneously rejected by custodians due to a mismatch at the custodian end, even though, the orders were funded," the two stock exchanges said in a joint statement.

"After rectification of these errors, the final demand was for 42.04 crore shares," they said.

"The exchange systems operated normally and smoothly and there were no glitches," the joint statement from NSE and BSE said.

The ONGC offer for sale was conducted yesterday at the NSE and BSE through a first-ever secondary market mechanism and finally closed with total bids for 42.04 crore shares, as against an offer size of 42.77 crore shares.

The exchanges said late last night that the orders received after the normal market close at 1530 hours were not considered by them in the offer for sale.

The joint statement followed remarks made by Additional Secretary in Department of Disinvestment, Siddharth Pradhan, last night that the market regulator Sebi has been asked to look into the technical glitches due to which some bids could not get registered.

At the time of the closure of bidding at 1530 hours yesterday, the exchanges had put the total bids at 29.22 crore shares, accounting for only about 68 per cent of the offer size. However, the final tally of 44.04 crore shares came out more than seven hours later, raising concerns that some technical glitches might have led to certain bids not getting registered.