ABSOLUTE POWER - Inside story of the National Stock Exchange’s amazing success, leading to hubris, regulatory capture and algo scam

by Sucheta Dalal

Kalpesh Parekh, head of the cash market dealing section of Emkay, got an order to sell Rs35 lakh (Rs3.5 million) value of Nifty Basket and Rs7 lakh (Rs700,000) value of Sensex Basket[71] from Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund. He decided to execute it in two tranches, i.e., one of Rs17 lakh (Rs1.7 million) and another of Rs18 lakh (Rs1.8 million) and assigned it to Sagar. But, while placing the first order, Sagar chose ‘quantity’ instead of Rs17 lakh in ‘value’. This converted an order of Rs17 lakh (Rs1.7 million) into a single sell order worth Rs980 crore (Rs9.8 billion) at 09:50:54. It turned out to be the single largest sell order ever in the Indian markets.