By IANS
Mumbai : Volatility continued to rock Indian stock markets Friday, resulting in a key index to fluctuate wildly in a range of over 500 points, as investors continued to panic over moves to ban the use of participatory notes.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 18,031.77 points and fell to a low of 17,513.22 points, after oscillating in a range of 520 points.
A little before noon, the key index was at 17,692.82 points, down 305.57 points, or 1.70 percent, over the previous day’s close at 17,998.39 points. As many as 27 out of 30 shares that make up the Sensex basket were in the red.
The barometer index had lost 717.43 points, or 3.83 percent, Thursday and 336.04 points, or 1.76 percent, the day before, after the markets watchdog Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) said it was proposing to curb the use of participatory notes by foreign funds.
The instrument is used by overseas investors not registered with SEBI to buy shares through foreign funds. They are seen as a means for backdoor entry for speculative and anonymous trading.
Thirty-four foreign funds have issued participatory notes and SEBI found that their notional value constituted 51.6 percent of all the assets under the custody of foreign institutional investors.