The Securities Mania

It was testimony to the extent of liquidity in the banking system that bankers began to queue up in front of the Public Debt Office of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from the early hours of the morning. Reportedly, the first person arrived at around 4-30 a.m. He was followed by others. By 9 o'clock a long queue had formed on the pavement outside the RBI. None of them could go in because the offices had not opened and none of them budged because the sale was on a first come first serve basis. One of the banks had even got an NSE broker to send his employees to stand in the queue.

The Reserve Bank reportedly closed the issue in less than half an hour but there were still some left in the queue whose turn had not come. After some deliberations, the counter was re-opened and the RBI finally mopped up Rs 4,685.86 crore on behalf of the government.

To top it all, some foreign banks had sent their dealers who had arrived with their cell phones. Once they were sure that they would get allotment, they reportedly began trading in these securities from the RBI premises over their cellphones, even before they could get back to their dealing rooms.