Uncertainty looms large

THAT SINKING FEELING ON DALAL STREET

Share bazaar niche gira tho kya, aloo ka bhav nahin gira hai (So what if the stock markets fell, price of potatoes have not fallen)," reasoned Shankar Singh, a taxi driver in Mumbai.

On a day when all that the financial markets could talk about was the biggest ever fall in the Sensex, Singh's was a voice that brought to light the "real effect" of the stock markets.

At Dalal Street, the geographical centre of the Indian bourses, potatoes were far away from everyone's mind. Despondency was the order of the evening.

Groups of dealers clustered around discussing the day's events. The shocker of the day was not the 500-point gap opening, but the drubbing the counters saw in the last 90 minutes of trade.

That the term 'Black Monday' no longer represents the worst this market has seen was yet to sink in. Outside BSE's 26th floor banquet hall, where Kotak Bank was being inducted as a clearing bank for the exchange, calmness prevailed.

But, inside dealers' minds, a storm brewed "� about the uncertainty that clouded tomorrow's trading.

Exchange officials, who were catching up with colleagues at the lobby, were briefing each other on what they had heard.

"The finance minister was expected to talk to the media, first at 1:00 pm and then at 3:00 pm. Apparently, he refused, saying he did not want to comment. Considering, he was calling Monday's fall a correction, this reluctance to comment is being seen by the market as negative," said an employee.

Others talked about 'margin calls', 'metal prices', 'emerging markets' and 'FII liquidity' "� words that have come more common eversince the bourses caught fire.

"A broker I spoke to on Thursday told me I'll have to catch a train back to my village tomorrow and even travel without a ticket, at this rate," a BSE employee said in the elevator earning less laughs and more concerned nods. On Thursday, empathy was above humour.

As the masses of brokers, dealers and research analysts walked home, past the carts of IPO application forms, there seemed no relief that the day was over, only fear and concern of what tomorrow would bring.