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April 11, 2001
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Sebi seeks FII trading details from Jan 1999

Janaki Krishnan & Ashwin Punnen

The net is getting wider while the scope of the probe has gone back in time too. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is now seeking scripwise details of trading done by foreign institutional investors right from January 1999 itself.

The markets regulator, which has been looking at the probe in a more holistic light rather than as a mere short-term bear hammering by a group of operators, is now attempting to trace a pattern in the trading done by the FIIs, who have emerged as major suspects in the price manipulation which upset the stock market.

According to sources, the belief is that the seeds of the crash which came a day after the Budget was announced, was laid much earlier than this year. Infotech stocks became a fancy of the operators in 1998 but it was in 1999 that they became a craze, turning into a frenzy in the early months of 2000.

Sources said data of the earlier years was necessary to establish a pattern in the trading as the current market trend cannot be analysed unless there is some history to it.

Though a few FIIs such as Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley were named by Sebi at the start of the investigations as being in the eye of the probe, the current indication is that the securities watchdog is not leaving out any of the other FIIs as well.

Even trading details of little known FIIs have been sought as there is a strong suspicion of them colluding with domestic brokerages to prop up prices.

Sebi, in fact, has come in for criticism from various quarters for "unnecessarily'' expanding the scope of the probe and the general impression is that it might be a delaying tactic. However, officials connected with the probe said that they were in the process of gathering evidence and while the interim report - to be submitted by April 15 - would not be comprehensive, it would still be indicative to give a direction to further investigations.

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