The stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued a statement on Friday (13 March 2020) saying that over the last few days the Indian stock market has been moving in tandem with other global markets owing to concerns relating to COVID-19 pandemic, resultant fear of economic slowdown, recent fall in global crude prices, etc.
Sebi and Stock Exchanges have a robust risk management framework in place which automatically gets triggered in response to movements in the indices (BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty) as well as individual stocks both in cash and derivatives market, it added.
Some of these measures include: Value at Risk (VaR) Margin with initial margin to cover 99% risk of a transaction; Extreme Loss Margin (ELM) to cover the residual risk of a transaction; Collection of mark to market losses on daily basis; Additional surveillance margins based on stress tests; Circuit filters at index levels; Circuit filters at stock levels; Action on the basis of surveillance inputs; Regular follow up by the clearing corporations with the clearing members for collection of margin and pay-in obligations.
The regulator further said that the positions of margin payments, margin utilization, adequacy of collaterals (securities deposited by the brokers with the clearing corporations) and the pay-in’s obligations being met by the clearing members (brokers) are being continuously monitored. Similarly, the settlement and clearance of trades are also being constantly monitored.
Sebi and stock exchanges are prepared to take suitable actions as may be required, it said.
