The stock market's rise and crash this week is intensifying into India's 'biggest stock market scam.'
If markets hit lifetime highs on Monday anticipating BJP's electoral victory, they crashed on the counting day as the saffron party's actual wins didn't expand in forecast fashion. As the BJP failed to reach the halfway mark of 272 seats, markets howled in protest, wiping out Rs 31 lakh crore worth investors' wealth in a single day.
This, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged was a scam and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into it.
"We have a few questions on this. First question, why did PM and HM (Home Minister) give specific investment advice to the 5 crore families investing in the stock market? Is it their job to give investment advice? Second, why both interviews were given to the same media house, owned by the same business group, which is also under Sebi investigation for manipulating stock market? Third, what is the connection between BJP, fake exit pollsters and dubious foreign investors?," he asked.
Rahul alleged that BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Home Minister Amit Shah had information that the exit polls were wrong, yet talked up the markets several times.
In interviews with various news channels, both leaders indicated that the numbers were with them and cued the sparklers predicting a robust market rally on June 4. In fact, Shah even went one step further, tipping investors the wink and urging them to load up on stocks before June, 4 -- the counting day. Instead of fireworks, there was an explosion of unexpected kind, he alleged.
"We want an inquiry against PM Modi, Home Minister Shah and those who carried out the exit polls," Rahul said.
Tuesday's Rs 31 lakh crore loss in investor wealth is only a notional loss and not actual loss incurred by traders. The figure was arrived based on the total market capitalisation, which is nothing but the value of all listed companies outstanding shares.
On Tuesday, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 31 lakh crore to Rs 394 lakh crore crore from Rs 473 lakh crore.
However, following the colossal fall on Tuesday, markets recovered on Wednesday. While the NSE Nifty50 gained 3.36%, BSE Sensex jumped 3.10%. The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on BSE surged to nearly Rs 408 lakh crore from about Rs 395 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors wealthier by about Rs 13 lakh crore.