New Delhi, Sept 1: Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said on Wednesday that it does not expect the millennium computer bug to affect the country's stock markets, but added that the exchanges would not trade on December 31 to guard against any eventuality. "On December 31, we will have no trading. December 30 will be the last trading day of calendar 1999 and December 31 will be used for taking the back-ups for settlement purposes," said Sebi senior executive director OP Gahrotra. Indian stockmarkets are usually open for trading on December 31 each year.
"And, on (Saturday) January 1, we will be starting the trading again," he said. "In case there is a problem, we can rectify it. Normally, on Saturday and Sunday, there is no trading. But this year we will, because of the Y2K problem."
Gahrotra was speaking to reporters at a conference "Preparing India for Y2K" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
At the switchover to the new year, the Y2K problem, or millennium bug, threatensto disrupt operations in older computers that track dates by using just the last two digits to represent a year.
Sixteen of 23 Indian stock exchanges, which account for 95 percent of trades, are already Y2K compliant, Gahrotra said. "The others are working towards Y2K compliance."
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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