The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) which was probably in orbit after the successful launch of the IRS-1D, must have come hurtling down to earth with the current crisis. With the forced abandonment of the Insat-2D due to technical snags, the problems for Isro have been compounded by glitch affecting the smooth working of its users which consist of the DoT, the Meteorological Department, Doordarshan and V-sat operators. However, it has been the shutting down of trading on a premier national bourse and the fear of a financial crisis that have hogged the headlines.But with the NSE expected to resume trading on October 9 (a loss of three trading days), this controversy seems to have been blown out of proportion. Largely because the total trading loss for the exchange is estimated to be around Rs 4,200 crore, given its daily average of Rs 1,400 crore. However, the brokerage loss to the exchange would be minimal as sizeable trades are done by the brokers themselves and client trades earn brokerages as little as 0.25 per cent.

More importantly it is the problem of open trader positions on the NSE, which is threatening to balloon into a larger financial crisis. Here the NSE has two options: option A- which is the harsher of the two- could involve a cancellation of all of last Wednesday's trades. Option B - envisages the buyer and sellers arriving at a mutually acceptable "strike" price for all traded shares. This would definitely be the more plausible of the two options and should also limit any problems linked to delivery based trades.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.