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Text Message Sends Indian Stock Market Reeling

by Terrence O'Brien — Aug 24th 2007 at 10:20AM

TXT Hoax Victimizes Indian Stock Market

We recently reported on a text message hoax in Indonesia that warned of a tsunami and that was taken so seriously by people, they fled their homes en masse for higher ground. Now, India has been the victim of a text gag, with this one aimed at the country's financial market.

Yesterday at exactly 12:45 PM local time in Mumbai, thousands of traders were hit with a text message that claimed the political left had pulled out of the government and that it would hit the news in 45 minutes. The Senex (a selection of 30 highly-traded stocks from the Bombay Stock Exchange) then immediately dropped 160 points in seven minutes. The plunge into the red didn't last long though, as buyers saw an opportunity and boosted the Senex 170 points in the following four minutes. Of course, in the end the left never exited and the Indian government didn't collapse.

We don't have any money tied up in the Senex, but we like this story because it shows how our new, rapid means of communication and information dissemination are having an effect on our world -- especially our financial markets. Just a few months ago, you may remember that Engadget -- the most linked to blog on the Web -- posted a story about Apple delaying the release of the iPhone and the next update to the OSX operating system. Though the story was incorrect and based on a forged internal e-mail, investors saw the news and Apple's stock immediately tanked, going from $107.89 to $103.42 in six minutes -- though it later made a full recovery.

The takeaway from all of this? Rumors fly around a lot faster and easier than they used to, which means we all need to be a lot more responsible about what we choose to believe, and why we choose to believe it.

From Textually.org

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Tags: bombay stock exchange, BombayStockExchange, bse, india, market, mumbai, sensex, stock, text messaging, texting, TextMessaging

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