Short sellers caught off-guard as market swings within hours of opening

After the markets opened 5% gap-down, the Nifty hit the lower circuit of 10% within five minutes. This led to the halting of trade for 45 minutes

Short-sellers were caught off-guard on Friday as the indices witnessed wild swings — from a 10 per cent low intraday to over 3 per cent in the green — within two hours of market opening.

According to market participants, traders were expecting the markets to be conducive for a sell-on rise strategy and had started to build fresh short positions when the markets started to show some upmove from the day's lows. "The market fall was largely on account of margin calls, and traders with short calls mind have not expected such a sharp pullback as leveraged positions started to