It seemed like just another day in November. But Vipul Shah (name changed) couldn’t believe his eyes. Staring at his trading terminal in his Fort office, Shah, a 45-year old BSE broker, simply couldn’t fathom why the State Bank of India counter was a flurry of action.

The stock was flat early on in the day, but had started firming up by noon and was up by 2% over its previous close-a decent enough move for a stock which figures among the key components in the benchmark indices. “Has there been some announcement, just check,?” he asked his chief dealer sitting a few paces away. But even a few telephone calls later, there weren’t any clues. No other frontline stock seemed to react. Yet the SBI stock had climbed another 2% percentage points over the next half an hour.

By the time it was up 5%, a spate of rumors explaining the rise and rise of the SBI scrip had gripped the market. The favorite one: the SBI Act was being amended to enhance the overall foreign investment ceiling in the stock. A few miles away, in the confines of a swanky dealing room of a foreign broking house at Nariman, a group of anxious dealers were nervously punching away at their dealing terminals. “How much more to go?” the chief dealer calmly asked of his boys. “Just 25,000 shares more boss,” was the answer.

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