New Delhi, February 18
Any probe into the stock market crash of January 22, 2008, could be possible if there are some concrete evidences of lack of transparency and wrongdoings, concerned authorities are understood to have informed a Parliamentary panel today.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance reportedly discussed market volatility today, which was its second meeting on the issue.
Finance secretary D Subba Rao reportedly told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that volatility is integral and inherent feature of the markets and there is no market failure on January 22 and preceding days, sources said.
However, if the panel viewed that there are concrete evidences of market failure and lack of transparency on those days, Rao said the authorities might look into those issues, according to sources. On January 22, the Indian stock market suffered its biggest single-day fall, losing 1,408.35 points, on panic selling triggered by weak global cues.
The finance ministry is understood to have told the panel that no single cause could be attributed to such a fall in share prices. It was primarily caused by sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US and Europe and net selling by financial institutional investors. The standing committee will meet once again, before submitting its report to Parliament in the coming Budget session, slated to start from February 25.
— PTI
