NSE says 'erroneous' orders hit trade

The National Stock Exchange has issued a clarification on the freak trade that resulted in the massive slide in stock markets early Friday.  The exchange said abnormal orders resulted in multiple trades at low prices.

The 50-share Nifty dropped over 900 points to a low of 4,888 today and the BSE Sensex was also affected by the sharp fall in the Nifty. The Sensex dropped nearly 300 points and slipped below the 19,000 mark.

"The market opened normally today and Nifty opened at 5,815. Nifty circuit filter got triggered at 9.50.58 upon which the cash market was closed automatically," NSE said in a statement.

The exchange systems functioned normally without any glitch, but the above abnormal trades caused market closure automatically due to the index circuit filter getting triggered, the exchange added.

"The market was reopened by the exchange with a pre-open phase at 10.00.22 and trading resumed at 10.05.00. The market is functioning normally and the incident is being investigated," the statement said.

Sources told NDTV Profit that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India was looking into the freak trade and it has sought an explanation from the NSE.