Emkay's Rs 650 crore sell order caused Nifty plunge: NSE

Sell orders worth Rs 650 crore executed by Emkay Global Financial Services sent the 50-share Nifty into a free-fall in early trade , the National Stock Exchange said. Trading in the cash market was frozen after the steep fall triggered the intra-day circuit filter, which shuts down the system when limits on either side are breached.

The NSE has said the orders executed by Emkay were on behalf of an institutional client, but the quantities were erroneous.

Following is the full text of the NSE release:

The market circuit filter got triggered due to entry of 59 erroneous orders which resulted in multiple trades for an aggregate value of over Rs.650 crores. These orders have been entered by a trading member Emkay Global Financial Services on behalf of an institutional client. These non-algo market orders have been entered for an erroneous quantity which resulted in executing trades at multiple price points across the entire order book thereby causing the circuit filter to be triggered. These orders have been identified to a specific dealer terminal.

Emkay Global Financial Services has closed out the positions arising out of erroneous trades smoothly.  The member has been disabled from trading.