Government issues notices to 4 entities for May Sensex crash

Our Markets Bureau
08 January 2005

The names of these entities could be obtained from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) he told newspersons.

However, G N Bajpai, chairman, SEBI, refused to reveal the names of these four entities that are being questioned about their trading activities on May 17, termed 'Black Monday.'

"I have a philosophical issue on this. I have never mentioned to the media the name of an entity that we are investigating or proposing to take action against, until investigations are complete," said Bajpai.

On May 17, the market witnessed an unprecedented selling frenzy and the Sensex lost 842 points intra-day. Market-wide circuit filters came into effect twice during the day and trading had to be halted for over two hours.

Though, subsequently, the indices regained marginally, the bourses ended the day with a loss of over 11 per cent, wiping out Rs2-lakh crore of market capitalisation.

Ever since, SEBI has been collecting data and investigating reasons for the crash.