Gossip & Tales: Pannun Shadow On India's Stock Market?
Hushed whispers among a few top traders on Dalal Street regarding this week's sharp fall in India's stock markets recall threats issued by India's most wanted Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. In January, several mainstream news media had reported that Pannun, who is currently said to be ensconced in the US, had specifically asked his followers to "dump Indian stocks and buy U.S. stocks before March 12." Among the series of threat messages that Pannun has issued against India, in January he called for the “economic destruction" of India by targeting the BSE and the National Stock Exchange from March 12, which happens to be a sad remembrance day of the dreadful 1993 Bombay bomb blasts that among other places had targeted the BSE building. He may be shooting in the dark or call it a coincidence but the dates of sharp fall in India's stock market coinciding with dates mentioned by Pannun to "dump Indian stocks" has set the rumour mills rolling.
At the start of December last year, Pannun had said threatened to disrupt India's Parliament on December 13, which was followed by a dud gas attack by rouge elements inside the new Parliament building. This week India's stock markets have witnessed turbulence despite a relative calm in the global markets. Yet, action by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on NBFCs lending against stocks, ED raids on infamous market operator Hari Tibrewala and statements coming from market regulator SEBI's office regarding a bubble in small mid cap stocks and SME segment are being considered as the key catalyst for the recent market fall, at a time when India's election commission is likely to announce polling dates anytime this week or the next for the upcoming 2024 national elections. In just two trading sessions between March 11 and March 13, the Sensex is down more than 1300 points. Small and mid-cap stocks are down between 5 per cent to 30 per cent.
Freak Trade In BSE's Options Segment?
A sudden spike was witnessed in the price of Sensex call options on the BSE for a strike price of 76000 from Rs 12.25 to Rs 180 (1,369 per cent), a strike price of 74400 from Rs 60.45 to Rs 800 (1,223 per cent) and a strike price of 74800 from Rs 90.95 to Rs 600 (559 per cent). Such a massive spike in call options for the Sensex index happened between 12.18 PM to 2.00 PM. The time of spike from the low price to the high points of these options strike prices were just two minutes, data shows. Considering that the Sensex was sharply lower during the time, it is believed that these were freak traders or errors, which remains to be probed.
