Sebi seeks reply from BSE on market shutdown

The exchange had closed all markets due to network outage for more than 3 hours

Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought a reply from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which had shutdown all markets due to a network outage.

Asia's oldest stock exchange, BSE, which operates in equities, derivatives, currency and debt segments, was unable to update prices of securities due to network problems. 

The exchange had therefore decided to close all markets till the technical issue was resolved.

"Due to network outage being currently faced, BSE has decided to close all markets. Network service vendor HCL team is working to resolve the market. Once the network issue is resolved, the market will restart," said a BSE spokesperson.

After being shut from 9:30 am, BSE held a new pre-opening session at around 12:45 pm. 

 

According to regulatory sources, Sebi has asked the exchange to submit a written reply by the end of the day. "Based on the reply, we will decide whether it warrants any action or corrective measures from our side," said a source.

The exchange is said to be working on the reply to be submitted to the market regulator.

 

The market shutdown comes at a time when the benchmark BSE Sensex is trading at an all-time high level.

 

On Wednesday, the Sensex had rallied had 324.86 points, or 1.27%, to close at 25,841.21, topping its previous all-time high of 25,583.7 touched on June 10.

 

This is the longest market shutdown that BSE has faced in the recent past. Recently, there have been a few instances of outages on BSE, however, the exchange has been able to resolve it instantly.

Meanwhile, market players said that trading wasn't impacted as much as BSE's bigger rival the National Stock Exchange (NSE) continued to operate smoothly.

 

As on 12:40 pm, NSE had seen volumes of Rs 11,000 crore in the cash segment, Rs 62,000 crore in the futures and options (F&O) segment and another Rs 7,300 crore in the currency derivatives segment. On Wednesday, NSE's cash turnover stood at Rs 19,500 crore, F&O turnover was Rs 1.26 lakh crore, while currency derivatives turnover was Rs 17,400 crore.

 

Incidentally, just last week, BSE had clocked its highest-ever F&O turnover at Rs 3.36 lakh crore on June 24.