MCX makes strong debut; cedes gains on profit-booking

Coimbatore, March 9: 

The shares of MCX continued to shed gains from the day’s high as investors seemed to book profit in view of the phenomenal gains on the first day of trading in the bourses today.

The stock, which listed at a 34 per cent premium on the BSE at Rs 1,387 and then climbed higher to Rs 1,426, has slipped to 1,318.40 with a trading volume of 35.48 lakh shares in post-noon session.

On the NSE, the MCX shares were down to Rs 1,319.10, still a gain of Rs 287.10 or 27.82 per cent. The share touched a high of Rs 1,428.55 on the NSE.

PTI reports: After a record-breaking investor demand for shares in its initial public offer (IPO) late last month, the Multi-Commodity Exchange saw robust buying interest in its debut trade on the stock market this morning and saw its price soaring past Rs 1,400 level within minutes of listing.

In the pre-open bidding, the shares attracted a premium of over 40 per cent from its IPO price of Rs 1,032 a share and touched a high of Rs 1,450.

Based on a new price-discovery mechanism, followed for the first time in MCX listing, the shares finally opened normal trade at the BSE at Rs 1,387 — a premium of 34 per cent, and went on to gain further ground to a high of Rs 1,420.

On the NSE, the shares opened at Rs 1,408 and touched a high of Rs 1,428.25 by 10.15 a.m.

After becoming the first Indian exchange to come out with an IPO, and also the first public offer of the year 2012, MCX also became the first company to list under the new SEBI rules introducing pre-open bidding in the first-day trade of stocks listing after IPOs.

Under the new guidelines, announced by the SEBI on January 20, a pre-open bidding is conducted for one hour between 9 am to 10 a.m., pursuant to which an equilibrium price is discovered.

Thereafter, a price band of 20 per cent is imposed for the listing day trade.

These measures were adopted by the market regulator to check wild price fluctuations in the listing day trade, as many stocks in the past have seen movements of even 100 per cent or more on their first day of trade.

Although MCX had offered to list its shares on the BSE alone, NSE in a late night circular on March 7 said that it will admit MCX shares for trading on its platform.

MCX had previously said that it would first observe the volumes on BSE for some time and then decide about NSE.

However, NSE has not pro-actively offered to list MCX shares on its platform. Regulations allow an exchange to add a stock in the list of ‘securities permitted to trade category’ even if a company has not applied itself.

However, the move has come as a surprise as both NSE and the MCX founders (FTIL group) have been at the loggerheads for many years now over various issues, including direct competition in some business areas.

Some market experts said that MCX shares were expected to create strong volumes in the secondary market, given the demand worth Rs 36,000 crore for its IPO worth about Rs 650 crore, and the NSE might not have wanted to lose the volumes to its rival BSE.

A listing ceremony was held at the BSE here to mark MCX’ debut in the stock market. The MCX Vice-Chairman, Mr Jignesh Shah, and the CEO, Mr Lamon Rutten, were among those present for the ceremony.

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Ethical hacker tells how to beat censorship

Hyderabad, Jan. 31: 

Ask Mr Ankit Fadia, the 26-year-old ethical hacker, to sign his book for you, he would scribble ‘Happy Hacking' before signing it. For him, hacking is ethical and a tool to settle scores if someone restricts your freedom. He feels that it is like arming the disarmed.

If Government or any private or public agency tries to restrict Internet access, Mr Ankit says, “you need not lose heart. You need not keep mum and suffer silently.” It is an antidote for censorship, which he feels, not fair.

“You can always press ‘undo' button in such cases and enjoy surfing whatever way you and get connected with the world,” Mr Ankit, who wrote his book when he was 14, said.

He is part of E-Secure, a security consultancy firm that hacks into companies' networks (after it is engaged for the job) to highlight the chinks in the armour. The firm has advised 50 companies so far.

In Hyderabad on Tuesday to promote his latest book How to unblock everything on the Internet, there is nothing on the Internet that can be blocked. The book, his 15th one till date, contains information on how to unblock the blocked sites.

Censorship

Referring to recent moves by the Government to force social networking sites to pre-screen the content before it gets published, he said cyber laws would do to tackle unlawful activities.

“Putting restrictions on sensitive information is okay. I am against all other restrictions. You can always pull up the wrong guy and put him to task,” he said.

Ethical hacking could be a good career option.

“There are good guys and bad boys out there. Knowledge is like a knife, it all depends on how you use it,” he said.

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Apex court for invoking terror charges against Hasan Ali Khan

New Delhi, March 8: 

The Supreme Court today mulled invoking terror and other stringent penal charges against Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, accused of massive money laundering and tax evasion, for his alleged links with arms dealers and people linked to terror activities.

A Bench of Mr Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and Mr S.S. Nijjar also asked the Union Government to examine if the case registered against him for possessing fake passports could be probed by the CBI.

The Bench contemplated invoking terror charges under anti-terror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other stringent provisions of the Indian Penal Code owing to Mr Khan’s alleged links with various arms dealers and those involved with terror-related activities, threatening the country’s security.

The Bench expressed displeasure that the probe against Mr Khan in the fake passport case had not proceeded in the right direction with right speed “as nothing is moving despite the magnitude of the issue’’.

The court made the observations and issued directions while hearing a public interest litigation filed by eminent jurist Mr Ram Jethmalani, seeking repatriation of huge corpus of black money stashed in banks abroad by unscrupulous Indian citizens.

Mr Khan was arrested last night by the Enforcement Directorate which carried out searches at his Pune house and that of his associates’ premises in several cities, cracking the whip to meet today’s Supreme Court deadline.

53-year-old Ali, who was detained in Pune, was brought to Mumbai later and was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate for nearly six hours before being put under arrest.

The apex court also asked the Government to furnish details of the four officials probing the case against Mr Khan, who were abruptly transferred midway into the investigation.

The Government responded to the query saying the officials were on deputation with the ED and were repatriated.

The Solicitor General, Mr Gopal Subramaniam, however, assured the court that he would take up the matter with the Government and see that the officials are retained.

The Government also admitted that the court was justified in seeking Mr Khan’s custodial interrogation as the charges against him warranted such questioning. “It is a case in which a case is made out for custodial interrogation,” he said.

The Solicitor General also admitted that one of the investigating officers, who was a deputy commissioner of police, was earlier harassed apparently by his superiors as he had the courage to take on Mr Khan in the fake passport case.

Meanwhile, senior counsel Mr Anil Divan, appearing for petitioner Mr Jethmalani, expressed serious apprehension about Mr Khan’s life as he had enough material to expose the powers-that-be behind his various murky deals.

The counsel recalled that Ashutosh Asthana, a key accused in the Ghaziabad provident fund scam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Dasna Jail of the district during the CBI probe into the case.

Meanwhile, the ED submitted to the court in a sealed cover its status report on the probe into the case related to black money in which they also mentioned Mr Khan’s arrest last night.

Mr Subramaniam also told the court that besides the ED report, he would also furnish a status report relating to the investigation so far conducted by the Income-Tax Department.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing to March 18.

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