MUMBAI, Aug 6: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) did not witness a trading session on Wednesday as it had to conduct an extra session to enable members to square off Tuesday's open positions and also conduct auction of the previous settlement.

As a result, the current settlement will commence from Thursday and will comprise only four days. The additional session from 10.15 am to 11.45 am witnessed a turnover of Rs 427.22 crore an indication of the amount that had not been squared-off as a result of disruption of trading on Tuesday.In a statement issued on Wednesday, NSE clarified the position and the decision that it had taken late on Tuesday evening.

According to the exchange, the problem arising out of the satellite drift usually occurred from 3 pm onwards and extended to 6.30 pm. However, on Tuesday the problem started emerging as early as 2.30 pm. The fact that Tuesday was the last day of the settlement compounded the problem as nearly 500 members could not enter their orders and were left with large unclosed positions.

The simplest solution that was open to the exchange was to allow additional trading hours in the evening of the same day from 7 pm to 8 pm to enable members to close out their outstanding positions.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.