BSE officials said Shah punched in an order for 300,000 shares instead of 30,000 shares at Rs 725 per share while the ruling market price was around Rs 682-84 per share. At this point of time, about 11.46 am, the price prevailing on the exchange was an average Rs 709. The broker realised his mistake only when his terminal was automatically deactivated as he had crossed his exposure limits. The ITC scrip and Sensex had also shot up by this time.

The ITC scrip, having opened at Rs 675 moved in wide range today, before closing at Rs 705 on the BSE. Sensex also gained 45 points despite the brouhaha over the insurance bill. Said Mathur, "The exchange has got the prima-facie evidence against the broker. We are glad that we had the 20 time gross exposure limit which checkedthe transactions executed by the broker."

"Our investigations would find out how the broker could have made the mistake both in case of quantity and price," Mathur added. It is interesting to note that the BOLT system by default allows the trader to check the deal punched in and only then executes the order.

Mathur also explained that the gross exposure limit in case of Shah, allowed his trading system to absorb a purchase order of only 1.30 lakh shares. The rest of the 1.70 lakh share of the net quantity of 3 lakh shares however could not be matched as the system first provided the alert signals to the broker and later deactivated him from the system.

The broker was immediately called upon by the senior officials of the exchange and was asked for an explanation. On the broker's plea that the transaction was erroneously punched, the exchange offered him the concession to square off his position.