BSE Sensex Crashes 2,200 Points in 5 Minutes, Recovers 2,000 in Next 7
· Business · Times of India, Economic Times
The BSE Sensex plunged over 2,200 points within a five-minute window after the start of the Closing Auction Session (CAS) on Thursday afternoon, between 3.18pm and 3.23pm, before recovering nearly 2,000 points in the next seven minutes. The benchmark eventually closed at 76,934, down 539 points from Wednesday's close. The NSE Nifty saw a milder move, sliding over 100 points before recovering about 60 points to close 117 points lower at 24,091. Heavyweight Sensex constituents including Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC and Bharti Airtel saw sharp intra-CAS swings, with Reliance falling 3% to Rs 1,250 before bouncing back to close at Rs 1,286. Traders flagged the volatility on social media, with one citing a potential Rs 44 lakh gain in five minutes from a Sensex put option trade timed around the CAS window. The episode comes a week after SEBI caught Copthall Mauritius, a JP Morgan arm, allegedly manipulating Sensex constituents for illegal gains of nearly Rs 3 crore.
Why it matters
Retail traders and institutional investors trading derivatives on the ~200 stocks covered by CAS face sudden, extreme price swings concentrated in a narrow 15-minute daily window, creating outsized risk and the appearance of manipulation. SEBI's new closing mechanism, designed to curb price rigging, is instead producing volatility that has already drawn regulatory action against a JP Morgan entity.
Read the original report — Times of India
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