Freak trade in Tata Motors, Ultratech shares due to system error: Religare Capital

Shares of Tata Motors and UltraTech Cement dropped as much as 10 per cent each in a matter of few seconds before making a recovery. This happened after a series of shares were sold at lower prices, traders said. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has begun a probe into the matter. Religare Capital Markets Limited has been identified as the broker for the transaction. NDTV Profit learns that NSE officials today met with the company's officials over the issue. Later in the day, in a press statement, the company clarified: "We use third-party software for execution of orders on stock exchanges. Due to some technical issue in the software, unintended transactions got executed. There was no broker error and no loss to any clients. The matter is being investigated by the software supplier. Religare Capital Markets Limited has discussed the matter with exchange officials. There is no impact on client business and Religare Capital Markets will operate as normal on Monday. The block sales took place on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at much lower prices than either company was trading at the time, sending the shares crashing and sparking speculation of a freak trade. The fall was within the exchange's limits, an NSE official said. The sharp falls in shares of the two companies sparked reminders of a flurry of erroneous orders for a broad basket of shares placed by Emkay Global that sent the stock market tumbling in October. "It seems like possibly somebody has done a freak trade in Tata Motors and UltraTech because in large cap stock the bid-ask gap is not huge," said G. Chokkalingam, chief investment officer at Centrum Wealth Management. Tata Motors shares fell 5.49 per cent after six separate block deals comprising a total 2.07 million shares took place at an average price of Rs. 274.92. The sales sent shares as low as Rs. 268.25. UltraTech shares fell 3.4 per cent after one block deal comprising 41,863 shares took place at an average price of Rs. 1,853.80. Shares fell as low as Rs. 1,712.35. With inputs from agencies