Broker body slams NSE for delay in communicating technical glitch

Reasons for not activating recovery site even after 45 minutes of glitch remained unknown

Association of National Exchanges members of India (Anmi), a broker body, has written to the market regulator saying there was no timely public announcement by NSE regarding Wednesday's technical glitch, which has caused a huge monetary loss to members and investors, including intraday traders.

"All open positions remained at peak levels. The glitch happened one day before the expiry of monthly and weekly contracts... Hence, there is a greater need of engaging deeper investigation in the matter," Anmi said in a note on Thursday.   

The body further said that trading could have continued since there was an issue with two spot indices and all other things were working fine. Reasons for not activating recovery site even after 45 minutes of glitch also remained unknown. 

Lack of information about resumption of trading also caught traders off guard. "They could have averted panic selling by online brokers on BSE and prevented huge monetary loss to investors. All this happened due to lack of clarification from NSE on trading restart timing. They only informed after all cash positions were cross settled at abnormally high discount and premiums on BSE," Anmi said. 

Anmi wants the exchange to waive off penalty provisions of all open derivatives positions and/or cash for Wednesday and Thursday. It also said a well defined policy and process is required to handle such emergency situations in future and manage outstanding positions.