Sebi suspends CSE broker: Sebi has suspended a stock broker for a period of three months for indulging in unauthorised carry forward of transactions. According to a Sebi release, an enquiry committed on their part revealed that Sonthalia and company, member of the Calcutta Stock Exchange violated the Sebi Act of 1992 pertaining to the sudden fall of index between October 1995 and January 1996. They were issued a show cause notice and considering thesubmissions made, Sebi suspended the broker for a period of three months with effect from October 23, 1998.

BSE employees go on work-to-rule strike: The Bombay Stock Exchange officers association has gone on a work-to-rule strike from Friday onwards. The officers forming part of the association have decided to work only from 10 am to 6 pm. While the administrative work is not expected to be affected, systems related work which includes downloading of information for brokers etc which only takes off after the administration work, is likely to be hit owing to the strike. The association is believed to be unhappy over certain promotion related procedures.

Change in NSE trading time: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has communicated that the market timings will be from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM from September 25 to October 7. This is because there will be Sun Outage during this period at different times across the country. Due to this phenomenon, the VSAT's in the satellite based communicationnetwork would lose their connectivity. The VSAT's on NSE would be affected from September 25 to October 7 between 10.45 am and 11:15 AM. During this period, trading members may face loss of connectivity at different times based on their geographical location. The market will, therefore, remain temporarily closed between 10.45 AM and 11.45 AM from September 25 to October 7. The market will re-open for trading at 11:20 am after pre-open of five minutes, thus the change in timings from 10 in the morning to 4 in the evening during the aforesaid period.

Subramanyum elected OTCEI chairman: Unit Trust of India chairman, PS Subramanyam, has been elected the chairman of the Over The Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI). Subramanyam replaces the former UTI chairman, GP Gupta who has since moved to IDBI as its chairman. The decision to appoint Subramanyam chairman of the exchange which is growing through a major revamp exercise was taken by the OTCEI board on Friday.

Pivotals lose ground at the fag-end atNSE: Pivotals started steady on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here on Friday and after hitting intra-day highs, reacted towards the fag-end on profit selling and closed marginally higher than the previous close. The S&P Cnx Nifty opened better at 935.30 and after touching a high of 945.25, settled at 934.95, showing a small gain of 0.15 over the previous close of 934.80. Cnx Nifty Junior rose by 7.65 to 1546.45 from the last close of 1538.80. S&P Cnx Defty looked up by 0.40 to 762.30. S&P Cnx 500 gained by 0.55 to closed at 636.04 while Cnx Midcap 200 improved by 2.73 to 555.11 from 552.38.

DSE stocks fail to maintain early gains: Share prices failed to maintain early gain on the Delhi Stock Exchange on late hectic selling by foreign funds and speculators but closed slightly above previous levels. Traders said shares which firmed up initially on finance minister's statement that buy-back of shares by companies would be introduced soon, were seen rolling down on reports of fall of Asianmarkets. The DSE sensitive index ended marginally up by 0.30 point at 716.43 points after touching the session's high of 725.54.

MSE up 6 points: Equities firmed up further on speculative-cum-buying support in the Madras Stock Exchange on Friday. The MSE index opened at 3481.84, moved up further to 3492.12 to settle at 3486.66 compared to previous day's close of 3481.84 points, gaining 5.82 points.

Tokyo stocks close 3.4 per cent lower: Japanese share prices closed 3.4 per cent lower on Friday, pressured by a deepening political stalemate over bank rescue legislation and a drop on Wall Street the previous day. The key Nikkei stock average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 481.94 points to finish at 13,723.84. The broader Topix index of all first-section issues lost 28.08 points to 1,049.93 points, with an estimated 370 million shares changing hands, down from 460.0 million shares the previous day.

Thai stocks surge 12.2% for the week: Thai stock prices soared 12.2 per cent in theweek to Friday thanks to several upbeat assessments of the Thai economy and hopes for a cut in US interest rates in the week ahead, analysts said. The market ended one of its best weeks in many months with a disappointing correction following its strong 8.2 per cent surge on Thursday. Analysts said investors were focused on next week's meeting of the US Federal Open Market Committee which will decide the direction of short-term rates in the Unit ed States.

Jakarta stocks drop 2.5%: Indonesian share prices dropped 2.5 per cent Friday following the previous day's sharp gains, dealers said. ``It was just a technical correction following yesterday's sharp rise,'' a dealerwith a European brokerage said. The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index closed 6.936 points down at 282. 160, a day after gaining 7.6 per cent on news of a debt rescheduling deal between Indonesia and creditor-nations. The market hardly reacted to the news that ex-President Suharto had met with theattorney general in connection with aprobe into his alleged wealth, the dealers said.

South Korean shares plunge 2.2%: South Korean shares closed Friday 2.2 per cent lower on profit-taking and continued worries over regional markets following steep declines on Wall Street, dealers said. Korea Stock Exchange main index fell 6.96 points at 303.79.

Australian stocks fall 2.0 per cent: Australian share prices ended sharply lower on Friday, falling 2.0 per cent on bearish sentiment in the US market, losses in key Asian bourses and local profit taking. The All Ordinaries index, closed 51.5 points lower at 2,563.4.