Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today said it was analysing data to find out reasons behind last week’s stock market crash and would submit a report to the new government after the probe was completed.Sebi Chairman G N Bajpai, who called on Finance Minister P Chidambaram here today, had a 30-minute-long meeting to brief him about the markets. When asked about charges of market manipulation that led to last Monday’s crash on the bourses, Bajpai said ‘‘we are yet to analyse the data. It will be too premature to say anything now.’’ He declined to give a time frame within which the market regulator would complete the probe and submit a report. Sebi would submit a report ‘‘as and when the data is analysed’’, Bajpai said. The Sebi chief, however, sought to allay fears of any crisis in the market saying ‘‘there is no payment crisis. Our markets are one of the safest in the world.’’ Bajpai declined to give details of the meeting with the finance minister while stating that it was a ‘‘courtesy call’’” as Sebi was a functionary under the finance ministry.The meeting assumes importance in the wake of the sharp fall in share prices last week that had wiped off more than Rs 1,00,000 crore of shareholders wealth. Chidambaram had stated that Sebi was looking into the reasons behind the market crash and would continue its probe even after markets cooled down. The Left parties had also demanded a probe in the stock market crash.Soon after the Lok Sabha poll results were out, stock markets fell sharply as investors feared a reversal of reform and disinvestment process during the regime of the new Congress-led government. On May 18, the BSE Sensex crashed by over 880 points but closed more than 560 points lower, the biggest fall in a day in the history of the Indian capital market.
