How will the market take it?

THE BIG question for investors on Tuesday was: will the blasts notch up another casualty, the stock market? The one certainty: broking firms need to come up with a plan, since the markets are going to be open for business as usual on Wednesday.

THE BIG question for investors on Tuesday was: will the blasts notch up another casualty, the stock market? The one certainty: broking firms need to come up with a plan, since the markets are going to be open for business as usual on Wednesday.

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Both the BSE and the NSE have online disaster management systems, with multi-location mirror servers which can seamlessly takeover trading in the case of any eventuality.

BSE spokesperson Kalyan Bose said: "All staff along the Western Railway line (which was the target of the attacks) have returned. About 60 employees will be spending the night at the exchange itself. Trading will operate normally." The NSE has also made similar arrangements.

Tuesday was a hectic time for heads of broking firms -- who were torn between trying to help stranded employees get home and working out a strategy for the next day.

The blasts took place well after trading had ended for the day at 3.30 p.m. It had been a bad day for investors in any case. The Sensex fell by about 70 points to close at 10,614.35, while NSE's Nifty slipped by 25.85 points to 3,116.15.